april 2011 - The American Ceramic Society

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AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY
emerging ceramics & glass technology
ApRI l 2011
Finding
the Right
Combination
for Protecting
Intellectual
Property
Understanding patents and patent procurement costs •
Business, licensing and intellectual property management •
Ceramic Leadership Summit preliminary schedule •
Structural Clay Products and Glass & Optical Materials Divisions meeting previews •
0
10
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Instructors: George D. Quinn, NIST, and
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May 14-15, 2011
Fundamentals of Glass Science
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Instructor: Arun K. Varshneya, Saxon Glass
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October 20-21, 2011
and Technology & Fractography Lab
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contents
April 2011 • Vol. 90 No. 3
feature articles
Understanding patents and managing patent-procurement costs . . . . . . . . . 24
Robert J. Sayre
With changes in world markets plus recent Congressional and judiciary actions, it’s important
for ceramists and materials scientists and engineers to consider new strategies to protect their innovations. Minimizing and predicting patent-related expenses is a key component of these strategies.
Business, licensing and intellectual property management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Wendy Hankle
Protecting intellectual property is growing in importance for researchers and their sponsoring
institutions. Best practices to protect revenues while spurring commercialization are still evolving,
but innovators, schools, labs and government agencies are making strides and providing better
resources and guidance to innovators.
Ceramic Leadership Summit 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
General sessions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Hotel information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2011 Glass & Optical Materials Division annual meeting preview . . . . . . . . 37
Invitation from the program chair and program overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Fundamentals of Glass Science and Technology Short Course. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
GOMD schedule-at-a-glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Symposia schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Poster session and student poster competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
cover story
Finding the Right
Combination for
Protecting Intellectual
Property
Business, licensing and intellectual property management
– page 30
Structural Clay Products Division Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Schedule of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Plant tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Gettysburg area attractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
departments
News & Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
• Netzsch planning high-temperature materials conference this fall in Boston
• Glass commission to hold ‘summer school’ for new researchers
• Sapphire crystal makers’ business on upswing
ACerS Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
• Society’s Structure Review Project
• Messing stars at New England Section meeting
• Toledo Glass and Ceramic Award meeting — April 21, 2011
• Register for Cements 2011
• Super early bird savings for Ceramic Leadership Summit 2011
Ceramics in the Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
• LED disposal safety questioned
• ACEEE: All-gasoline and natural-gas 2011 U.S. vehicles not ceding ‘greenest’
label yet
• Tesla: We are close to ‘closed loop’ battery recycling with reusable alloys, slag
American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 90, No. 3
Ceramics in the
Environment
LED disposal safety questioned –
page 11
Ceramics in Energy
Argonne extends cathode technology to Envia – page 18
1
bulletin
Executive Staff
Charles G. Spahr, Executive Director and Publisher,
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contents
April 2011 • Vol. 90 No. 3
departments, continued
Advances in Nanomaterials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
• Layered graphene found to provide stable storage of hydrogen
• Arkema, INES collaborate to develop PV research lab
• Nanocrystals lead to larger grains at lower temperatures: Possible polysilicon production cost breakthrough?
Ceramics in Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
• DOE announces support for new projects
• Tosoh says its new sputter targets add 1 percent to solar energy conversion
• Lux Research: Concentrating Solar Power deserves gigawatt focus in 2011
• Argonne extends cathode technology to Envia
• Convert rather than intercalate lithium for battery applications
Research Briefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
• Double perovskites developed for high-temperature applications
• Japanese group ‘prints’ amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell created using
silicon inks
• Not your average melt: At absolute zero, quantum fluctuations appear to
liquefy glass
• Extreme caution suggested: Superhydrophobic surfaces may have weak icephobic properties
• Two groups find cheaper, easier route to ‘cloaking’ in visible light
resources
International Journal of Applied Glass Science preview . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Journal of the American Ceramic Society preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology preview . . . . . . . .
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classified Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Display Advertising Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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47
Officers
Marina Pascucci, President
George Wicks, President-elect
Edwin Fuller, Past President
Ted Day, Treasurer
Charles Spahr, Executive Director
Board of Directors
Rajendra K. Bordia, Director 2008-2011
William G. Fahrenholtz, Director 2009-2012
David J. Green, Director 2010-2013
Michael J. Hoffmann, Director 2008-2011
Linda E. Jones, Director 2009-2012
William Kelly, Director 2008-2011
William Lee, Director 2010-2013
James C. Marra, Director 2009-2012
Kathleen Richardson, Director 2008-2011
Robert W. Schwartz, Director 2010-2013
David W. Johnson Jr., Parliamentarian
2
American Ceramic Society Bulletin covers news and activities of the Society and its members, includes items of interest to the ceramics
community and provides the most current information concerning all aspects of ceramic technology, including R&D, manufacturing,
engineering and marketing.
American Ceramic Society Bulletin (ISSN No. 0002-7812). ©2011. Printed in the United States of America. ACerS Bulletin is published
monthly, except for February, July and November, as a “dual-media” magazine in print and electronic format (www.ceramicbulletin.org).
Editorial and Subscription Offices: 600 North Cleveland Avenue, Suite 210, Westerville, OH 43082-6920. Subscription included with
American Ceramic Society membership. Nonmember print subscription rates, including online access: United States and Canada, 1 year
$75; international, 1 year $131.* Rates include shipping charges. International Remail Service is standard outside of the United States and
Canada. *International nonmembers also may elect to receive an electronic-only, e-mail delivery subscription for $75.
Single issues, January–November: member $6.00 per issue; nonmember $7.50 per issue. December issue (ceramicSOURCE): member $20,
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Periodical postage paid at Westerville, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. Allow six weeks for address changes.
ACSBA7, Vol. 90, No. 3, pp 1–48. All feature articles are covered in Current Contents.
news & trends
Netzsch planning high-temperature materials conference this
fall in Boston
for the meeting is Boston’s Millennium
Hotel. Discounted room rates are available by using the code NETZSCH_
HITEMP2001.
Netzsch makes thermal analysis
instruments for thermophysical properties measurement. For a conference brochure, visit: www.hitemp2011.com n
Netzsch Instruments has announced
that it is launching a conference on
high-temperature materials, applications, testing, processing and diagnostics. Netzsch is calling the inaugural
meeting “Hi Temp 2011” and will hold
it in Boston, Mass., Sept. 20–22.
According to the Netzsch website,
Hi Temp 2011 “will include presentations of cutting edge results on materials, such as thermoelectric materials,
thermal barriers, piezoelectrics, nuclear
reactor materials, radioactive waste,
high-temperature ceramics, catalysts,
and insulating materials.”
Netzsch says there will be a lot of
focus on state-of-the-art characterization
methods and thermal analysis. In terms
of the scope of the meeting, Netzsch says
it intends to cover the following topics:
• Energy applications;
• Aerospace applications;
• Melts, glass and amorphous materials;
• Thermal and structural properties
measurement in ceramics and thin films;
• Processing–property relations in
dielectric and piezoelectric ceramics;
• Thermoelectric materials;
• Ultra-high–temperature ceramic
multilayer coatings; and
• Construction materials
The deadline for submiting abstracts
is April 10, 2011, and information
about acceptance of abstracts will be
mailed by May 1.
Registration is available online. The
“early registration” period for discounted fees ends May 31, 2011. The venue
3
news & trends
(Credit: ICG.)
The
International
Commission
on Glass has
announced it is
holding its third
annual summer school event for new
researchers in glass science and technology in Montpelier, France, July 4–8,
2011. The school’s program is specifically aimed at new Ph.D. students and
others just starting research for the glass
industry.
The ICG is still working on the final
program, but the preliminary announcement says, “Each day will start with a
discussion of available measurement/
simulation methodologies and their
contribution to our understanding of
glass structure, both on different length
scales and for a broad spectrum of inorganic glass-forming systems. These lectures will underpin talks on properties
and their structural dependence, e.g.,
optical behaviour, viscosity and aging,
nucleation and crystallization.”
The commission says lectures will
come from world-class experts. It also
says there will be ample time for discussion of how these concepts can be
applied to the students’ projects.
Preregistration begins April 4, 2011,
and the registration deadline is June 1,
2011.
Visit www.icg.group.shef.ac.uk n
Mathematical simulation of silicate glass.
4
(Credit: Thermal Technology.)
Glass commission to hold ‘summer school’ for new researchers
90-kilogram sapphire crystal.
Sapphire crystal makers’ business on upswing
It appears that because of strong
demand in the LED markets, companies
that have a hand in making the sapphire
substrates for LEDs are doing quite well,
financially and technically.
For example, Illinois-based Rubicon
Technology announced a few weeks
ago that it has begun making 12-inch
wafers for LEDs. Silicon-wafer size
growth has been playing a role over
the past two decades in driving down
semiconductor chip prices. Polished
sapphire wafers have grown from the
2-inch standard size, to then 4-inch and
8-inch sizes. Thus, the 12-inch wafer
marks a substantial achievement.
Part of the trick of making larger
wafers is forming large crystals of pure
sapphire. Currently, the LED industry
seems to be centered on boules in the
80- to 90-kilogram range, but Rubicon
has demonstrated that it can produce a
200-kilogram crystal.
In a press release, company president and CEO Raja Parvez asserts that,
“Rubicon’s ability to affordably produce
larger wafers, free of defects, is key to
helping industries that make and use
LEDs scale to the volumes necessary to
support the growth needed in the general lighting and consumer electronics.
[…] our customers can depend on us
for uniform, particulate-free sapphire
wafers as well as flat, stress-free wafers.
High-quality sapphire wafers help our
customers produce high quality LED
wafers at volumes supporting the LED
supply chain.”
In 2010, Rubicon said it had inked a
$71 million 6-inch wafer deal with an
unnamed “major LED chip manufacturer” that extends through 2011. No
mention is made in the new announcement about who might be interested
in buying the 12-inch wafers, but the
company goes out of its way to mention that Philips Lumileds and Lextar
Electronics are using the 6-inch variety.
The industry’s transition to largerdiameter wafers in LED production
already has started. Earlier in 2010,
Rubicon announced that the company
entered into a $71 million agreement
with a major LED chip manufacturer
for which Rubicon will provide 6-inch
polished substrates. Companies, such as
Philips Lumileds and Lextar Electronics,
have announced 6-inch production of
LED wafers built on sapphire.
Rubicon describes itself as “a vertically integrated manufacturer with
capabilities in crystal growth, high-precision core drilling, wafer slicing, surface lapping, large-diameter polishing
and wafer-cleaning processes. Demand
seems strong (according to Bloomberg.
com, Parvez last week said that wafer
prices are up 30 percent compared with
the previous quarter), and investors
seem to like what they see in Rubicon:
When the company released its quarterly report February 18, Rubicon’s
stock price jumped 20 percent.
Another example of the industry
doing well is Thermal Technology
LLC. Unlike the vertically integrated
Rubicon, Thermal Technology focuses
on making and selling “crystal growth
equipment and high-temperature furnace systems.” In other words, it sells
the equipment so other companies can
make the boules and then slice and prepare the sapphire wafers.
In early December 2010, Thermal
Technology – a privately held company
– announced it would begin marketing
equipment to make 90 kilogram boules
using a Kyropoulos growth method.
That development must have struck a
chord because the company released
another announcement February 10,
2011, that trumpets that the company
already has received 59 orders for the
new crystal grower “from customers in
Taiwan, Korea and China. In total,
these growers will produce 5.2 million
TIE (two-in-equivalents) per year.”
Sino-America Silicon Products, one
of the company’s LED-producing customers in Taiwan, had a company-wide
party to celebrate the creation of one of
the 90-kilogram crystals grown with the
Thermal Technology system
Matt Mede, Thermal Technology’s
president and CEO, seems pleased.
He says in a press release, “Previously,
the Russian growers were the industry
standard. The superiority of our design,
crystal size and tool capability is quickly
making Thermal Technology the industry leader in this market sector.”
Visit Rubicon Technology: www.
rubicon-es2.com and Thermal
Technology www.thermaltechnologyinc.com n
Europe says it is ramping up its
strategic materials plan
The
European
Union recently
announced
a major new
“vision” for
dealing with strategic commodities
and raw materials. The EU published
a communication that lists 14 raw
materials (antimony, beryllium, cobalt,
www.hitemp2011.com
Tuesday, September 20 to Thursday, September 22, 2011
Millennium Hotel
Boston, MA
fluorite, gallium, germanium, graphite,
indium, magnesium, niobium, platinum
metals, tantalum and tungsten as well
as the rare-earths) it has identified as
being at a higher risk of supply interruption and highly important to the
region’s economy.
The EU says its new efforts build
on a 2008 plan on raw materials, but
appears to be, in part, a reaction of how
speculative derivative trading in raw
materials has caused increased volatility
in supply prices/availability.
In September 2010, the European
Commission implemented new regulations about derivative markets and
trading. However, it appears that it will
take further steps to eliminate systemic
risks.
Besides regulatory steps, the EU says
it will pursue expanding the possibility
of opening new mines in the region so
HiTemp 2011 is intended to foster
discussion and debate regarding the
most recent understanding of high
temperature materials and the state
of the art in their experimental studies,
processes, and diagnostics for scientific
and technological applications.
Experimental studies of
high temperature materials
n 10 keynote lectures
n 28 contributed lectures
n 3 poster sessions
Leading Thermal Analysis
5
their leadership in the ceramic community.
Ceradyne continues to be an active ACerS
member and is very pleased to participate
in the first Ceramic Leadership Summit.
I look forward to being a part of this meeting.
news & trends
as to make it less dependent on extercome to a similar plan is the DOE’s
that we opened the first crucible facnal suppliers: “Although the EU is very Critical Materials Strategy published in tory in Tianjin for the development
and manufacture of high-technology
import-dependent on metals, Europe is
December 2010.
Joel
P. Moskowitz
ceramic crucibles to meet our Chinese
endowed with strong industrial minerVisit:
EU Business www.eubusiness.
CEO,
President,
of the Board
customers’ requirements.”
als and building materials industries.
com
and
Natura Chairman
www.natura.org
n
Ceradyne, Inc.
Tianjin has a good transportaMoreover, despite dependence on mettion and educational infrastructure.
als imports, there are important deposCeradyne opens solar materials Consequently, there are a number
its of many metals in many regions of
manufacturing facility in China
of high-tech and industrial developthe EU. Therefore, the potential for
ment projects going on in the city’s
mining in Europe is strong, and many
“Binhai New Area,” which includes the
Member States are making use of their
Tianjin Airport Economic Area, where
deposits. However, in spite of this,
714-549-0421
www.ceradyne.com
Ceradyne
has announced
the openCeradyne has built a plant on a 13.7many barriers to mining exist, some
ing of a new factory in Tianjin, China.
acre plot. (It has been reported recently
of which are administrative and some
Ceradyne Tianjin Advanced Materials
that, for the first time, Binhua’s GDP
which are often due to the sector being
exceeds that of the more familiar
subject to various overlapping and con- will produce high-purity ceramic cruci4049-CER_ACerS_hlfislnd~f.indd
1
5/21/10
12:29:49
bles for
the forming of large polysilicon
Pudong
area
ofPMShanghai.)
flicting policies.”
ingots for use in the manufacturing of
These mining proposals are causCeradyne’s scope extends well beyond
photovoltaic silicon solar cells.
solar components. In an interview filmed
ing some concerns, because they also
According to a company press
in 2009, Ceradyne’s founder and CEO
refer to creating or modifying “land
release, this is the company’s second
Joel Moskowitz discussed the company’s
use policy planning” and “putting in
high-purity ceramic crucible manufacplace a clear authorization process for
strategy to expand into nonarmor areas,
turing facility in China.
exploration and extraction.” There are
such as specialty crucibles for preparing
Bruce Lockhart, Ceradyne’s vice
fears that these decisions will override
solar-grade polysilicon.
president responsible for the company’s
environmental standards, and at least
“Next year they may call us a solar
solar energy efforts, says, “This is a very company and in five years maybe they will
one report says an EU commissioner
has said that one set of protected lands, exciting event for Ceradyne and partic- call us an aluminum company” he said.
Natura 2000, may be opened to mining. ularly for Ceradyne Thermo Materials.
Visit: Ceradyne www.ceradyne.com
It was only three and a half years ago
n
Another major component of
the plan seems to be having a moreconscious effort to develop long-term
New $200M Ecomagination Challenge launched
agreements with African nations: “As
an example of the EU’s commitment to
trends, etc. A Twitter feed also is
GE has unveiled the 2011 version
help developing countries to use minavailable. In addition, GE has a blog
of
its
$200
million
Ecomagination
ing as an instrument for development
about the Challenge.
Challenge
on
the
theme
of
“Powering
and poverty reduction, as part of the
Ideas submitted are competing for
Your
Home.”
The
2011
theme
is
a
EU-Africa Joint Strategy for 2011-13,
two
levels of rewards: Actually prizes
logical
departure
from
the
one
in
agreement was reached to cooperate in
range
up to $100,000, but the big
2010,
“Powering
the
Grid,”
but
mainthree main areas: governance; investkahuna
is the pool of $100 million+
tains
the
open
innovation/community
ment/infrastructure; and geological
available
in the form of commitments
feedback
system
used
last
year.
knowledge/skills. This cooperation will
of
venture
capital investments in the
Although
the
submission
period
for
also explore how resource-rich countries
best
ideas.
entries
apparently
has
been
closed,
a
can better link the extractive industry
Final judging is done by a panel
basic idea can be registered and then
to local industry and communities.”
that
includes individuals from GE’s
followed
up
with
a
concept
submisThe plan also includes:
business
units, representatives from
sion
via
Ecomagination
Challenge
• Increasing materials innovations
academia,
venture capital firms,
website.
and substitution options;
government
research specialists and
The
website
utility
isn’t
limited
• Stimulating urban mining/mateothers.
They
are supposed to conduct
to
submitted
ideas.
Science
and
rials recycling; and
technology
aficionados
can
view
the
their
evaluations
“based on merit;
• Studying the effect of raw mateoffered
ideas,
submit
comments,
give
reliance
on
science
and engineering
rials and commodity prices on food
Facebook
“likes,”
see
who
else
supfundamentals;
innovative
character;
supplies.
ports
the
ideas,
see
similar
ideas,
view
potential
to
create
significant
societal
The nearest the United States has
6
Congress members concerned
about United States rare-earth
defense strategy
Two U.S. senators from Alaska and
a U.S. representative from Colorado
are upset about what they perceive
is the Department of Defense’s lax
attitude toward the strategic supply of
rare-earth elements. Senators Mark
Begich and Lisa Murkowski along with
Representative Mike Coffman in late
January dispatched a long letter to DOD
Secretary Robert Gates to express their
concerns about the agency’s dependence
on non-U.S. suppliers of REEs.
They wrote, “[E]arly indications are
the DOD has dismissed the severity of
the situation to date. Based on initial
discussions with the DOD Office of
Industrial Policy, we understand the
effort to precisely ascertain and fully
comprehend DOD consumption of
certain rare-earth elements is still an
ongoing effort. In our view, it is a funimpact; commercial feasibility in light
of applicable market dynamics; and
other factors deemed appropriate by
the judges.”
The quality of last year’s entrants
was surprisingly high and diverse. So,
damental responsibility of DOD industrial Policy to have a comprehensive
understanding of the security of our
defense supply chain, which requires
understanding detailed knowledge of
the sources and types of components
and materials founds [sic] in our weapon systems.”
if you have an idea or just want to
browse through those of others, it’s
worth stopping in every week or so.
Visit: GE Ecomagination at http://
challenge.ecomagination.com n
The trio continued, “[M]anufacturing
capabilities required to convert materials into the components needed for our
defense systems are virtually non-existent in the United States today, and, to
our knowledge, no prime contractor has
long-term supply agreements to ensure
access in a fully secure supply chain.
Given the dwindling domestic supply
chain and struggle to accurately identify DOD consumption of rare-earth
elements, we respectfully disagree with
Director Lambert’s initial assessment.”
The three elected officials go on to
recommend that the DOD demand
contractors account for all REE consumption, define the agency’s current and future demand for REEs and
propose “real solutions on rare-earth
availability” in its upcoming report
to Congress (National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2011).
Murkowski is the ranking member
on the Senate Energy Committee.
Begich sits on the Senate’s Commerce,
Science and Transportation and Armed
Services Committees. Coffman has
weighed in on REE issues before and,
in 2010, introduced the Rare-Earth
Supply chain Technology and Response
Transformation (RESTART) bill. It
should be noted that Alaska is one of
several states that may have exploitable
REE reserves, and Colorado is home to
REE mining company MolyCorp. n
7
Attention ACerS Members
The Society needs your input on the
STRUCTURE REVIEW PROJECT
ACerS has started an important project related to the Society’s division,
class and committee structures that may impact the future organization of the
Society. Should the Society be organized differently to better serve the members and the ceramics community going forward? To answer this and other
questions Project Chair Raj Bordia urges all members to participate now in
two ways:
1. Go to the membership survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/SRP1 and
answer a few questions related to WHAT the ACerS community needs.
Your responses will give committee members the information to then
figure out HOW to organize to deliver it. Your opinions and insights are
important, so please participate!
2. Leave feedback and/or ask questions at the online forum at ceramics.org/
community. The forum allows members to discuss the possibilities and
give input in an open-ended format. Read comments left by fellow members and then share your thoughts on whether you think the Society’s
current division, class and committee structures are meeting your needs.
To learn more about the Structure Review Project, read the open letter to
membership from ACerS President Marina Pascucci. It appears on page 6 of
the January/February 2011 issue of the Bulletin, or go to the online forum and
click on the link to it.
Please participate and help shape the future of your Society. Thanks in advance
for your involvement.
acers spotlight
R.T. Vanderbilt Co.
Norwalk, Connecticut
www.rtvanderbilt.com
Capital Refractories Ltd.
Chesterfield, United Kingdom
www.capital-refractories.com
Liqtech NA Inc.
White Bear Lake, Minnesota
www.liqtechna.com
Mold Release Products Inc.
Hockessin, Delaware
www.lubekits.com
Starfire Systems Inc.
Schenectady, New York
www.starfiresystems.com
Messing stars at New England
Section meeting
The New England Section of The
American Ceramic Society kicked
off its 2011 meetings on Jan. 24,
when Gary L. Messing, Distinguished
Professor of Ceramic Science and
Engineering at Penn State, delivered a
presentation on recent improvements
to the transparency of polycrystalline
ceramics for solid-state lasers. Despite
Gary Messing, right, discussed transparent polycrystalline ceramics with MIT’s
Harry Tuller at the New England Section
meeting.
the blustery conditions, 40 attendees
negotiated the snow-covered New
England roads to hear the former
ACerS president speak.
For up-to-the-minute information
and additional meeting dates and
details, visit the Section website at
www.neacers.org. n
Toledo Glass and Ceramic
Award Meeting – April 21, 2011
Mark your calendars! The Michigan/
Northwest Ohio Section of ACerS is
holding its annual Toledo Glass and
Ceramic Award Meeting on Thursday,
April 21, 2011, at The Toledo Club,
235 14th Street, Toledo, Ohio.
This year’s award recipient is Prabhat
K. Gupta, in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the areas of
glass-forming ability; glass thermodynamics; relaxation and phase separation
in glasses; strength of glass fibers as well
as for a creative teaching style and dedicated service to glass-related scientific
organizations.
After graduating from IIT Bombay
with highest honors in metallurgical
engineering, Gupta pursued graduate studies at Case Western Reserve
University in 1966 under the guidance of the late Alfred Cooper. After
completing his Ph.D. in 1971, he
spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in
physics with Joel Lebowitz at Yeshiva
University. In 1972, he joined the
Vitreous State Laboratory at Catholic
University, and,
in 1977, he
joined OwensCorning Science
and Technology
Center as a senior
scientist. In 1986,
Gupta became an
Prabhat Gupta
associate professor in what was then the Ceramic
Engineering Department at Ohio
State University, where, at present,
he is a professor in the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering.
In 1993, Gupta received the Otto
Schott Research Award from the
Zeiss Foundation (Germany) for basic
research contributions in glass science.
In 2009, he was awarded the Glass and
Optical Materials Division’s George
W. Morey award. He is a fellow of The
American Ceramic Society and of the
Society of Glass Technology.
Don’t miss this opportunity to have
dinner with Dr. Gupta and hear his award
presentation as well as network with others in the glass and ceramics community.
For more information, check the
ACerS web site, or call Janet Bailey at
248-348-6585 or write her at jebailey@
wowway.com.
(Credit: The American Ceramic Society.)
ACerS recognizes organizations
that joined the Society as Corporate
Members in the past few months.
For more information on benefits
of becoming a Corporate Member,
contact Nick Schafer at nschafer@
ceramics.org or visit ACerS special
Corporate Member web page, www.
ceramics.org/corporate.
(Credit: June Wang; The American Ceramic Society.)
Welcome to our newest
Corporate Members
Register for Cements 2011
Registration is open for the 2nd
Advances in Cement-based Materials:
Characterization, Processing, Modeling
and Sensing. Sign up before June 11,
2011, to save $125. Co-organized by the
Cements Division of ACerS and the
Center for Advanced Cement-based
Materials, the July 24–26, 2011, meeting
will be hosted at Vanderbilt University
in Nashville, Tenn. The technical program will include oral and poster presentations on cement chemistry and nano/
microstructure, advances in multiscale
material characterization, alternative
cementitious materials and material modification, multiscale concrete
durability, advances in computational
material science and chemo/mechanical
modeling of cement-based materials, as
well as smart materials and sensors.
9
acers spotlight
This year’s tutorial is geochemical
speciation modeling and transport processes applied to cement-based materials and will feature Barbara Lothenbach
from EMPA, the Swiss Federal
Laboratories for Materials Science and
Technology. The Della Roy Lecture,
sponsored by Elsevier, will be given by
Karen Scrivener, professor and head
of the Laboratory of Construction
Materials at Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and
founder of the Nanocem Consortium.
Register at ceramics.org/cements2011 n
Call for papers announced for
‘Energy 2012’
Abstracts can now be submitted for
the Materials Challenges in Alternative
& Renewable Energy 2012 meeting. The
deadline for abstracts is Sept. 19, 2011.
“Energy 2012” will feature symposia on:
• Batteries and Energy Storage;
• Biomass;
• Electric Grid;
• Geothermal;
• Hydrogen;
• Hydropower;
• Nuclear;
• Solar Power; and
• Wind Energy.
Scheduled for Feb. 26–29, 2012,
Energy 2012 will facilitate information
sharing on the latest developments
involving materials for alternative
and renewable energy systems. Make
your reservations for sunny Clearwater
Beach, Fla., today! Visit www.ceramics.
org/energy2012 n
Super early bird savings for
Ceramic Leadership Summit
2011
Registration is now open for the
2011 Ceramic Leadership Summit.
Save $225 when you sign up before
May 16, 2011.
The CLS 2011 conference will take
place Aug. 1–3, 2011, in Baltimore,
Md., and will discuss business opportunities, emerging technologies, critical
10
areas for scientific advancement and
process innovations challenging the
ceramic materials community. The
2011 program is nearly complete. Visit
www.ceramics.org/cls2011 n
Register for ‘Clay 2011’
Registration is now open for ACerS’s
Structural Clay Products Division
Meeting 2011. “Clay 2011” is scheduled
for May 2–4, 2011 in Gettysburg, Pa.
The three-day event will offer two
plant tours, and technical presentations
from invited speakers. Sign up now
to be part of this meeting. Visit www.
ceramics.org/clay11 n
Call for book authors
ACerS is seeking new authors
or volume editors for textbooks,
handbooks and reference books on
ceramics and ceramics-related topics.
Examples of book topics include
oxides, non-oxides, composites,
environmental and energy issues;
fuel cells; ceramic armor; nanotechnology; glass and optical materials;
electronic/functional ceramic technology and applications; advanced
ceramic materials; bioceramics;
ceramic engineering, manufacturing,
processing and usage; ceramic design
and properties; and health and
safety issues. Authors and editors of
new, original books receive royalties
on worldwide sales of their books,
while editors of proceedings volumes
receive complimentary copies of
their books.
If you are an interested author or
editor, or simply have an idea that
you wish to share, please contact
Anita Lekhwani at alekhwan@wiley.
com or Greg Geiger at ggeiger@
ceramics.org n
ICC4 call for speaker nominations extended
The American Ceramic Society,
under the auspices of the International
Ceramic Federation, and in cooperation
with the European Ceramic Society
and The Ceramic Society of Japan, is
pleased to organize and host the 4th
International Congress on Ceramics in
June 15–19, 2012, in Chicago, Ill.
Invited speaker nominations are due
April 30, 2011. Send nominations,
including speaker name, address, email
address and topic to [email protected].
ICC4 proposed theme areas include
• Environment;
• Energy;
• Infrastructure;
• Transportation;
• Aerospace;
• Biology and Medicine;
• Security;
• Electro-, magnetic-, optical-ceramics and devices; and
• Nanostructured ceramics.
Join delegates in a global information exchange, network with your peers
and share your perspective at ICC4.
Visit www.ceramics.org/icc4 n
Society’s division and class
award nominations open
There are four ACerS division and
class awards that are still open for
nominations. Each of these awards will
be presented at MS&T’11, Oct. 16–20,
2011, in Columbus, Ohio. The awards
and deadlines are as follows:
• Ceramic Educational Council:
Outstanding Educator Award. Deadline
April 15, 2011.
• Glass and Optical Materials
Division: Alfred R. Cooper Scholars
Award. Deadline June 30, 2011.
• Electronics Division: Edward C.
Henry Award and Lewis C. Hoffman
Scholarship. Deadlines for both are July
31, 2011.
Visit www.ceramics.org/awards
for details on submitting entries for
these awards. Contact Marcia Stout at
[email protected] with questions. n
In Memoriam
Tsuneharu Ogasawara 1944–2010
Some detailed obituaries also can be
found on the ACerS website,
www.ceramics.org/in-memoriam
ceramics in the environment
Here’s a cautionary lesson about the
publicity around hybrid and all-electric
automobiles: A respected nonprofit
group dedicated to energy efficiency
just released its list of “greenest” cars
among the 2011 class and seven of the
top 13 rely on piston-driven “conventional” engines. In fact, the top performer on the list is the Honda Civic
GX, which runs on compressed natural
gas. The heavily advertised Chevy Volt
only ranked number 13. No diesels
made the list.
The American Council for an
Energy-Efficient Economy says its 14th
annual environmental ratings weighs
upstream and downstream effects, i.e.,
manufacturing energy, emissions and
disposal/recycling considerations.
In a news release, ACEEE vehicle
analyst Shruti Vaidyanathan says, “We’re
seeing an increasing number of highly
efficient gasoline options from both foreign and domestic automakers along with
the first electric vehicles. Ford introduced the Fiesta this year and Chevrolet
debuted the Cruze, both of which do
exceedingly well in our ratings.”
Here are the ratings:
1. Honda Civic GX (compressed
natural gas)
2. Nissan Leaf (electric)
3. Smart ForTwo Cabriolet/Coupe
(gasoline)
4. Toyota Prius (hybrid)
5. Honda Civic Hybrid
6. Honda Insight (hybrid)
(Credit: Smart USA.)
ACEEE: All-gasoline and natural-gas 2011 U.S. vehicles not ceding ‘greenest’ label yet
The gasoline-powered Smart ForTwo Coupe came in third place in a newly published
comparison of energy efficiency among autos manufactured in the United States.
7. Ford Fiesta SFE (gasoline)
8. Chevrolet Cruze Eco (gasoline)
9. Hyundai Elantra (gasoline)
10. Mini Cooper (gasoline)
11. Toyota Yaris (gasoline)
12. Mazda 2 (gasoline)
13. Chevrolet Volt (hybrid)
As one can imagine, the Volt’s marketing managers are none too happy.
A story from CNNMoney.com reports
that GM is disparaging the ACEEE’s
list and ranking system. When told of
the ranking and the rational behind it,
the website reports that GM spokesman
Rob Peterson said, “I find it kind of
laughable. […] It’s one group’s interpre-
tation of a measurement of ‘green’.”
It’s likely to still be a few years before
any of the nascent technologies establishes a dominating position. More likely,
a variety of technologies will be required
for a long time in certain applications,
regardless of the potential, because of
other economies and externalities (speed,
distance, location). Regardless, the
“green” bar is being raised by not-to-beignored amounts each year. Whether it
will ever occur by revolutionary amounts
remains to be seen.
Visit: American Council for an
Energy Efficient Economy www.aceee.
org n
A new report suggests that although
LEDs have performance advantages
over incandescents and compact fluorescent lights, one can’t assume that LEDs
are free from disposal problems. In fact,
the paper’s authors, from the University
of California (Davis and Irvine), suggest
that LEDs may bring their own unique
“environmental burdens.”
The researchers, who are associated
with UCI’s School of Social Ecology,
Program in Public Health and UCD’s
Department of Chemical Engineering
and Materials Science, distinguish
between environmental burdens related to resource depletion (e.g., gold and
silver) and those burdens related to
toxicity (e.g., copper, nickel and lead).
The group’s goal was to test whether LEDs could be considered “hazardous wastes” as defined by United
States and California standards, to
(Piccolo Namek, Wikipedia.)
LED disposal safety questioned
11
ceramics in the environment
look at how the threat might vary
across various LED types and to consider the overall life-cycle impact of
LEDs. The latter was done, in part,
to help designers and manufacturers
make safer products and to help waste
disposers and recyclers know how to
handle LEDs that are already making
their way to landfills.
Their findings, published in
Environmental Science and Technology
(DOI: 10.1021/es101052q), are that
some LEDs did pose a threat of leaching toxic materials if disposed of
improperly, but the threat was largely
related to LED color and intensity.
In fact, with one exception, all LEDs
exceeded California’s silver, nickel,
lead and copper standards. The one
exception is low-intensity yellow LEDs.
One type of LED – low-intensity reds –
exceeded federal lead standards.
The group’s methods are pretty
straight forward: Grind up LEDs and
expose the resultant flecks, nuggets
and specks to the equivalent of a multiyear bath in acid rain, and then test
for toxic materials in the runoff.
This isn’t the first time these
researchers have used this type
of approach. For example, one of
the UCI investigators, Oladele A.
Ogunseitan, has been grinding up and
testing cell phones and other commercial electronics for some time.
Ogunseitan has been the principal
investigator in an NSF-sponsored
study on strategies for addressing
e-wastes. Another group member,
UCD’s Julie M. Shoenung, runs the
school’s Lead Campus activities that
are part of the Research and Education
in Green Materials program.
In an online story in Gizmag, writer
Darren Quick reports that Ogunseitan
blames the situation on a lack of proper product testing before LEDs. “Every
day we don’t have a law that says you
cannot replace an unsafe product with
another unsafe product, we’re putting
people’s lives at risk,” Ogunseitan tells
Quick. “And it’s a preventable risk.”
The group says it hopes rapid steps
are taken to modify LED products and
craft-handling procedure. Group members note that LEDs are already entering the waste stream from auto industry
applications (front and rear lights) and
hitting the mass market in the form of
cheap and ubiquitous holiday lights.
On a practical level, the group suggests that anyone having to clean up
broken LEDs should treat the situation
as if approaching broken CFLs: Wear
gloves, mask and use special brooms
and other equipment to gather the
debris. They also go so far as to suggest special precautions for emergency
responders to highway accidents.
Visit: Schoenung Research group
at UC Davis: www.chms.ucdavis.edu/
research/web/schoenung n
With a goal of making sure their
car parts are disposed of in the most
eco-friendly manner possible, Tesla
has launched a new recycling strategy
in Europe for its batteries, which are
designed to last 7 to 10 years, or about
100,000 miles under normal use.
According to a company press
release, Tesla Motors has teamed up
with Belgium’s Umicore to establish a
lithium-ion battery recycling program.
Umicore will recycle Tesla’s “dead” battery packs to produce an alloy that will
be further refined into cobalt, nickel
and other metals. Umicore plans to
transform the cobalt into a high-grade
lithium cobalt oxide product, which
can be resold to battery manufacturers
(the company already supplies battery
makers with LCO).
The company also acknowledges that
some byproducts will remain, but says it
intends to turn this into a slag containing calcium oxides and lithium that can
go into special grade concretes.
Tesla says the recycling program will
save about 70 percent of CO2 emissions
12
(Credit: Tesla Motors.)
Tesla: We are close to ‘closed loop’ battery recycling with reusable alloys, slag
Tesla Motors is striving for complete battery recycling in Europe. Above is the battery pack for its Model S electric vehicle.
at the recovery stage.
“While we work to help lessen
global dependence on petroleum-based
transportation and drive down the cost
of electric vehicles, we are also taking
the lead in developing a closed-loop
battery-recycling system,” Tesla’s director of energy storage systems Kurt Kelty
writes on a company blog.
Kelty continues, “The technology to
enable this is available today – and it’s
profitable! We already reuse cobalt in
the batteries. The overall closed-loop
recycling system becomes possible, and
much more efficient, once the quantities rise to a level to justify the investment for recycling of the other components – especially the plastic.”
Kelty claims their system tries to
cover every detail. “The only other
emissions from the recycling process,”
he writes “are CO2, water vapor and
dust. The dust makes up about 1 percent of the total output, and it goes to
protected landfill. In an effort to reuse
every possible part of the process, the
Umicore facility even sells the electricity created from an on-site combined
natural-gas generation plant to the
copper mine next door, which uses the
heat in its smelters.”
These comments seem to imply
that Umicore is doing much better
than Tesla’s North American recycler,
Kinsbursky Brothers (Toxco Inc.),
which Kelty says recycles only about 60
percent of the battery pack.
Visit: Tesla Motors www.teslamotors.
com n
advances in nanomaterials
Layered graphene found to provide stable storage of hydrogen
can occur and be reversed through
a photothermal heating process, but
apparently the amount of hydrogen
that is stored in the single layer was
not measured (the work was focused
on methods to manipulate the charge
transport properties of the graphene).
The JNCASR group, led by C.N.R.
Rao, looked at additional research that
suggested that hydrogen loading might
be better accomplished through the
use of multiple layers of graphene, and
decided to do some detailed studies in
this area.
In brief, the group used two methods
to form few-layer graphene samples:
exfoliation of graphite oxide (forming
six to seven layers) and arc evaporation
of graphite under hydrogen (forming
two to three layers). The researchers
hydrogenated both samples (using Birch
reduction), and both samples displayed
a hydrogen content of approximately 5
weight percent.
They found that the hydrogencontaining graphene is stable at room
temperature “and can be stored over
long periods.”
Temperature (°C)
Change in the weight percent of hydrogen in few-layer graphene sample created via
exfoliation (EGH) and arc evaporation of graphite under hydrogen (HGH). (Inset) The
evolution of hydrogen as recorded by gas chromatograph.
Credit: Subrahmanyam et al.
Hydrogen storage (wt%)
Researchers from the Jawaharlal
Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific
Research in Bangalore, India say they
have come across a new approach for
using graphene for hydrogen storage.
They report in a paper published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences they have been able to create
samples containing up to 5 weight percent hydrogen, which they say can be
completely released through heating or
by irradiating with a laser or ultraviolet
light source. For comparison purposes,
the maximum amount of hydrogen that
can be contained in graphene is 7.7
weight percent.
This isn’t the first time researchers
have looked at graphene. Much of this
work has been done in the context of
trying to find some sort of suitable solid
body for hydrogen storage. Previously,
some investigators began thinking
about carbon nanotubes. Some storage
effects were achieved, but overall the
results have been disappointing.
Other research also has been done at
Columbia University using single-layer
graphene showing that hydrogenation
When the samples are heated, the
hydrogen begins to be released around
200°C and is totally released at 500°C.
As mentioned above, they also used
laser and UV irradiation to break the
C–H bonds and free the hydrogen.
The group feels this storage system may have potential applications,
and that a better storage system may
be achievable. The authors note,
“Although Birch reduction enabled
us to incorporate 5 weight percent of
hydrogen in few-layer graphenes, it may
be possible to carry out hydrogenation
more effectively by other methods.”
They also report they have achieved 3
weight percent storage using graphene
nanoribbons, which also fully releases
its hydrogen at 500°C.
Visit www.jncasr.ac.in/cnrrao n
Arkema, INES collaborate to
develop PV research lab
Arkema and the French National
Institute for Solar Energy (INES) are
teaming up to create a private–public
mixed research lab focused on the
development of photovoltaic module
technology.
Arkema develops polymers used
in photovoltaic panels. According to
the firms press release, this new joint
laboratory will pool Arkema’s expertise in polymers, polymer films and
nanomaterials, with the expertise of
the INES CEA teams in design and in
development processes for innovative
photovoltaic modules, silicon and thin
layers. This cooperative venture will be
in place for an initial four-year period.
This structure will help expand the
technological offering of the photovoltaic sector in France as well as its com13
advances in nanomaterials
Nanocrystals lead to larger
grains at lower temperatures:
Possible poly-silicon production
cost breakthrough?
Researchers from the University of
Arkansas, Fayetteville, say they have
made a significant step forward in
learning how to produce polycrystalline
silicon using a process that creates significantly larger grains at lower temperatures. The group thinks it may be a big
step toward getting photovoltaic energy
competitive with fossil fuel sources.
The Arkansas group, lead by Hameed
Naseem, professor of electrical engineering and director of the university’s Solid
State Lab, uses what it calls a topdown
aluminum-induced crystallization process to create poly-silicon with grains as
wide as 150 micrometer at temperatures
in the 100°C –300°C range.
AIC has been used for several years to
create small-grained poly-silicon, and, as
early as 2001, Naseem, et al., published
how the method could be used to create
0.5 micrometer grains at 150°C.
In a typical AIC process, some
form of chemical vapor deposition
first is used to form an initial layer of
amorphous silicon. Second, a layer of
aluminum is deposited using vacuum
deposition or some similar method.
Third, the silicon–aluminum layer is
annealed, at which point the silicon
and aluminum exchange places, and
the aluminum catalytically assists the
formation conversion of the amorphous silicon to poly-silicon during the
exchange. Much of the layer-exchange
system was pioneered by Oliver Nast
and others at the University of New
South Wales (Sydney) in the late 1990s
and early 2000s.
Naseem tells the Bulletin that what
distinguishes his “topdown” AIC
14
approach is that the aluminum simply
diffuses through the silicon, causing the
conversion to a p-type polycrystalline
form rather than exchanging places.
Naseem says that with topdown AIC,
as the aluminum begins to diffuse, “the
poly-silicon starts as nanocrystalline
material that coalesces almost explosively and produce these large grains.”
He traced his group’s work back to
problems NASA was identifying in
semiconductors in the 1980s and 1990s.
He says the semiconductors were failing, and the problem turned out to
be related to aluminum connects that
would heat up and contaminate the
silicon in the semiconductor. Further
investigation showed that the amorphous silicon in the semiconductor was
being damaged because it was being
converted to poly-silicon. Although this
was definitely a “problem” for NASA,
other researchers, such as Naseem, realized that this ability could be put to
positive use.
Naseem says there are several advantages to his group’s approach over other
poly-silicon production techniques.
Other techniques require hours of heating at much higher temperatures and
produce grains in the 0.5 to 5 micrometer range. Furthermore, the processes
necessitate batch processing.
Instead, topdown AIC rapidly pro-
vides large grains at lower temperatures,
and, Naseem says, “It is perfectly suitable to making continuous film via automated and semiautomated processes.
It can easily be annealed through belt
annealing.”
These researchers have the idea of
making some large leaps in reducing
the production cost of solar cells. “The
problem with solar energy has been
its cost per kilowatt hour. This applies
to both production and consumption.
With minimal further refinements,
our technology will address this problem. The goal is to reduce the costs of
silicon-based photovoltaics below those
of traditional fossil-fuel-based methods
such as coal, petroleum and natural
gas,” Naseem says in a university press
release.
Naseem says the next step for the
group is to start testing small prototypes of photovoltaic cells. He hopes to
achieve a 12 percent module efficiency.
To this end, he has become the chief
technical officer of a start-up company,
Silicon Solar Solutions, to begin testing and, hopefully, establish a proofof-concept continuous-film processing
demonstration. The company received
an SBIR Phase 1 grant in late 2010.
Visit: www.engr.uark.edu/home/687.
php and www.siliconsolarsolutions.com
n
(Credit: H. Naseem.)
petitiveness in this strategic area.
An INES promotional video highlights the innovations in solar research
at the facility.
Visit Arkema: www.arkema.com and
INES: www.ines-solaire.com n
A new process creates poly-silicon with crystal grains up to 150 micrometers, roughly 30
times larger than grains currently produced in the photovoltaic industry.
ceramics in energy
DOE announces support for new projects
The past month has been busy for
the Department of Energy, with many
new project and loan announcements
coming out of the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Here is a
summary of some of the most recent
efforts being launched or renewed.
• $5 million available for GATE
centers, student graduate fellowships in
automotive materials, engineering.
The DOE announced in mid-February that it is providing $5 million in
new funding for Graduate Automotive
Technology Education centers and
the grad student fellowships offered
in conjunction with the centers. The
main goal of the GATE program is to
foster domestic production of skilled
engineers in the automotive field, and,
moreover, use this training as part of
a broader strategy to keep the United
States a leading player in the world’s
automotive markets.
The DOE set up these GATE
centers at least a decade ago to foster
training in automotive-engineeringrelated fields. Back then, based on
competitive proposals, the agency
selected 10 U.S. universities. It seems
that in 2005, DOE fielded a second
round of proposals and narrowed the
winners to eight U.S. universities
who divvied up $4.7 million. This
new announcement represents a third
round of competition for the agency’s
funding.
Each center has a particular specialty
and has already been providing some
fellowships. GATE centers (and their
specialties) are currently located at
– Penn State (battery systems, flywheels, capacitors, and systems integration and testing);
– University of Alabama at
Birmingham (lightweight materials,
advanced computation and simulation
and biomechanics);
– University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign (advanced biofuel combustion engines);
– Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University (fuel cells);
– Ohio State University (modeling, controls and system integration of
advanced propulsion systems);
– University of California-Davis
(hydrogen fuel cell vehicles);
– University of Tennessee (optimal
strategies for hybrid powertrain control
and systems integration); and
– University of Michigan-Dearborn
(lightweight materials and processing).
The DOE says in a press release that
the funding “supports the administration’s goal of increasing American economic competitiveness by focusing on
science, technology, engineering and
math education to support job growth
and put the nation on the path to outeducate and out-innovate the rest of
the world. The funding also will help
to achieve President Obama’s ambitious goal of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”
Besides fellowships, DOE says the
selected schools can use the awards
to fund curriculum development and
expansion. Schools have to apply or
reapply for GATE funding (application instructions can be found under
Reference Number DE-FOA-0000442)
no later than April 18, 2011. The
DOE predicts that it will fund between
five and eight schools again and that
each award will be $500,000 to $1 million that will have to cover a five-year
period.
• Southwestern transmission project
gets $343 million DOE grid loan guarantee.
Department Secretary Steven Chu
announced in mid-February that it
will use American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act monies to provide
a loan guarantee for $343 million to
assist a consortium building a 500 kilovolt transmission line poised to transmit 600 megawatts of power throughout the Southwest.
The grid loan guarantee is the first
of its kind and most likely the first of
many. It supports the nation’s push to
integrate renewables into a national
grid that will demand a strong network
of transmission lines to transport the
energy from its source.
The One Nevada Transmission
Line project, or ON Line, is phase one
of a two-phase transmission project,
the Southwest Intertie Project. SWIP
will link Nevada, Wyoming and Idaho
to the entire southwest region and
California. At the completion of both
phases, SWIP will consist of a 510mile transmission system spanning
Idaho to southern Nevada. The entire
project is estimated to cost $1.6 billion, according to the Department of
the Interior.
“As our country increases its use of
alternative energy sources, new transmission lines like the ON Line project
will play a vital role in moving clean
energy from one region to another,”
says Chu in a DOE press release.
DOI Secretary Ken Salazar at the
ON Line groundbreaking ceremony last
October said, “Traveling through several areas under consideration for wind,
solar and geothermal power generation
projects, this line will provide the critical transmission infrastructure to bring
that potential to western communities.”
The ON Line portion of the SWIP
project is estimated to cost $510 million to build. The additional $167 million will be gathered from equity and
15
ceramics in energy
(Credit: Department of the Interior.)
debt from NV Energy, according to a
report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
ON Line should be fully operational
by early 2013. The full SWIP project
has an operational date of 2014. Fund
guarantees for the second phase of the
project, known as SWIP-North, most
likely will be granted in mid-2011 as
Great Basin Transmission (contributing as a joint-venture energy company
alongside NV Energy) anticipates having all permit requirements complete at
that time.
Visit: www.swipos.com.
Map of southwestern grid transmission
project, Southwest Intertie Project.
• DOI and DOE to support major
offshore wind initiatives with $50 million investment.
Salazar and Chu also announced in
early February major steps forward in
support of offshore wind energy in the
United States, including new funding
opportunities for up to $50.5 million
for projects that will aid offshore wind
energy deployment.
They say the efforts will help several
high-priority “Wind Energy Areas” in
the mid-Atlantic that will spur rapid,
responsible development of this renewable resource.
In particular, the agencies will be
funding
16
– Technology
Development (up to $25
million over five years) for
innovative wind turbine
design tools and hardware,
including the development
of open-source computational tools, system-optimized offshore wind plant
concept studies, as well as
coupled turbine rotor and
control systems;
– Removing Market
Barriers (up to $18 million over three years) to
conduct baseline studies
and targeted environmental
research to characterize key
industry sectors and factors Various recently announced DOE- and DOI-funded
projects address research, development and commerlimiting the deployment
of offshore wind, including cialization of cost-effective alternative energy production and transmission.
offshore wind market and
deployed across the country.
economic analysis, environVisit www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/
mental risk reduction, manufacturing
sunshot.
and supply chain development; and
• Energy Innovation Portal con– Next-Generation Drivetrain (up
nects innovative energy technologies
to $7.5 million over three years) to
to the marketplace.
fund the development and refinement
The DOE has launched an Energy
of next-generation designs for windInnovation Portal that it says can play
turbine drivetrains.
an important link between R&D and
Visit www1.eere.energy.gov/
the marketplace. The agency says the
windandhydro.
EIP has more than 300 business-friendly
• SunShot initiative to achieve
marketing summaries available to help
cost-competitive solar energy by 2020
as DOE announces $27 million in proj- investors and companies identify and
license leading-edge energy efficiency
ects to advance solar development and
and renewable energy technologies.
manufacturing.
Energy officials describe the Portal
Chu also released details of the
as an online tool that links available
DOE’s “SunShot” initiative to reduce
DOE-supported innovations to the
the total costs of photovoltaic solar
entrepreneurs who can successfully
energy systems by about 75 percent.
license and commercialize them. They
The goal of SunShot is to reduce the
say that by helping move these innovacost of large-scale solar-energy systems
tions from the laboratory to the marso that they are cost competitive with
ket, the Portal facilitates an integral
other forms of energy – without subsistep in supporting growing America’s
dies – before the end of the decade.
clean-energy industries and meeting
Chu says that by reducing the cost
the Administration’s clean-energy
for utility-scale installations by about
goals.
75 percent to roughly $1 per watt,
Visit www.techportal.eere.energy.
which would correspond to roughly 6
gov. n
cents per kilowatt-hour, utility-scale
solar energy systems could be broadly
Tosoh SMD, a maker of the type of
sputtering targets often used by photovoltaic manufacturers, says it has
developed a new line of transparent
conducting oxide targets that can add
a 1 percent gain to the solar conversion efficiencies of thin films.
According to a company news
release, the new TCO targets (available in either indium tin oxide or
aluminum zinc oxide, with planar and
rotary options) have been specially
doped to have improved transparency
and other optical properties.
The company says the targets “are
highly transparent, especially in the
visible to infrared range, and they feature high thermal stability, even under
humid conditions … [and] enable
the deposition of textured surfaces
that feature enhanced light-trapping
capability. Compared with thin films
from conventional TCO targets, a
single-junction thin film deposited by
a Tosoh AZO TCO target in a silicon
solar cell shows a one-point gain in
conversion efficiency. Thin films,
meanwhile, produced with Tosoh’s
ITO TCO target achieve a similar
gain in a copper indium gallium selenide-based solar cell.”
One CIGS expert seems to be
happy with this. According to the
release, Makoto Konagai, of the
Tokyo Institute of Technology, says
that “this invention will contribute
to achieving the goal of 18 percent
energy conversion efficiency with
Lux Research: Concentrating
solar power deserves gigawatt
focus in 2011
Tech research group Lux Research is
warming to concentrating solar power
technologies and says that business
related to concentrating solar power
should be good for 2011 as plants scale
up to gigawatt proportions.
(Credit: Tosoh SMD.)
Tosoh says its new sputter targets add 1 percent to
solar energy conversion
A rotary version of Tosoh’s new transparent conducting oxide sputtering targets.
a focus on low-cost and large-scale
production.” (Konagai is most likely
referring to an 18 percent conversion
efficiency mass-produced CIGS, not
lab tests. The NREL reached a CIGS
thin-film efficiency mark of 19.9 percent in 2008 and has confirmed that
at least one manufacturer has commercial units available that reach the
15.5 percent conversion level.)
Despite some technical developments, such as this, interest in thinfilm photovoltaic devices, especially
in the United States, has waned as
processing and manufacturing prices
for traditional silicon PV units has
continued to fall. Tosoh, however,
says it is hoping to attract worldwide
customers who are interested in lowering their overall cost per watt of
production.
Visit: www.tosohsmd.com/ n
A new report from Lux compares four
contending large-scale solar-powered
generation systems, three being CSP
approaches and the fourth a photovoltaic-based generation system model.
The three CSP technologies covered
in the report, ”Solar Thermal Update:
The Renaissance of Concentrating Solar
Power,” are parabolic trough, power
tower and Stirling thermal systems. The
three, plus the photovoltaic mode, are
compared and modeled using a hypothetical 100 megawatt plant.
Lux’s research has been distinguished
in the past because of the quality of the
firm’s ability to analyze real-world business factors. This new report produces
some interesting findings by focusing
on “levelized cost of electricity,” capital
costs and internal rate of return.
Ted Sullivan, lead author of the
report, says in a news release that
things haven’t always been shining
for CSP. “After a few fits and starts,
solar thermal projects have begun to
make a big impact on the generation
mix in both Spain and the Southwest
U.S. Though trough technologies have
been dominant to date, we expect
power tower solutions to gain increasing prominence as the technology is
proven, because their integration with
thermal storage technologies smashes
through the fundamental constraint
that has held solar back to date: intermittency,” says Sullivan, senior analyst
at the company.
Here’s how the four technologies
compared:
• Capital expenditures
– Winner: Stirling dish systems
(because of modularity and relatively
cheap Stirling engines).
– Runners up: Photovoltaic and
CSP tower systems.
– At the bottom: Parabolic
troughs (because of mirror field costs).
• Performance
–Winners: Trough and tower systems (Parabolic troughs have best peak
efficiency but tower systems have better
system yields and capacity factors).
– At the bottom: Stirling dish
and photovoltaic systems (lower capacity factors and lower energy yield, in
kilowatt-hours output per kilowatt of
peak power).
• Levelized cost of electricity (measured as in dollars-per-Watt hour)
– Winner: Stirling dish systems
(because their low cost and “decent”
performances provide better internal
rate of return to investors).
17
– Runner up: Power-tower technology.
– At the bottom: Trough and PV
systems (of CSP systems, troughs have
the most-expensive capital expendi-
tures, plus high operation and maintenance costs; PVs have relatively high
capital expenditure requirements and
“mediocre” performance).
Visit www.luxresearchinc.com n
Argonne extends cathode technology to Envia
Volt. ANL followed that with another
recent announcement that it also is
licensing its high-capacity manganeserich cathode technology to Envia
Systems, based in Newark, Calif. That
brings the total number of businesses to
(Credit: ANL)
In January, Argonne National Lab
said it had reached a licensing agreement with GM Ventures and LG Chem
to allow the two businesses to use a special cathode technology for lithium batteries, specifically those used in GM’s
ANL’s energy storage researchers investigate all stages of a battery: from the basic
chemistry at its molecular interfaces, to engineering better cathodes and anodes, to
testing completed batteries for performance and durability. The lab has licensed its
cathode technology to Envia Systems.
18
five, including BASF and Toda Kogyo.
Envia Systems also was recently
awarded $3.65 million from the United
States Advanced Battery Consortium, a
research collaboration group composed
of Chrysler, Ford and GM, to develop a
high-energy cathode material for vehicle applications and pouch cells.
According to a GM press release,
Envia’s advanced cathode technology
uses inexpensive materials that store
more energy per unit of mass than current cathode materials. Because the
cathode is a key driver for the overall
battery cost, the more energy the cathode delivers, the lower the battery cost
because fewer cells are needed.
Envia says its HCMR cathode material enables batteries that are distinct in
four ways. They use low-cost and safe
materials; they deliver unmatched energy density; they provide excellent cycle
life; and, they offer an inherent ability
to customize battery size and output to
meet the demands of a variety of applications, particularly for electric vehicles
and plug-in hybrid EVs.
Visit: Argonne National Laboratory:
www.anl.gov and Envia www.enviasystems.com n
Convert rather than intercalate
lithium for battery applications
Almost two
decades have passed
since the emergence
of lithium-ion batteries on the market. Despite steady
improvements in
Battery researcher
performance, curRosa Palacín.
rent technology is
struggling to meet the demand for everbetter energy density, power, safety and
environmental impact. A core problem
lies in the intercalation materials used
as electrodes in state-of-the-art lithiumion batteries. These materials have
intrinsic limitations in terms of capacity, and hence, energy density. It is now
widely recognized that new concepts
are essential for future breakthroughs.
(Credit: ICMAB.)
(Institute for Energy Research.)
ceramics in energy
One promising avenue under intense
investigation is electrode materials that
function in a “conversion” rather than
“intercalation” mode. In the conversion
systems, lithium undergoes a reversible electrochemical reaction with a
binary transition-metal oxide (or other
suitable counteranion, such as sulfide
or phosphide). Stable gravimetric
capacities thus can be attained that are
several times larger than for common
intercalation materials, such as graphite. Further advantages – for example,
the potential to tune the operating
voltage and choose low-cost environmentally friendly materials – add to the
attraction of this approach.
So what is hindering commercialization of lithium-ion batteries based on
these revolutionary conversion–reaction electrodes? Light is shed on the
critical issues – namely, poor cyclability
and large voltage hysteresis – by Rosa
Palacín and coworkers at the Institute
of Materials Science at Barcelona
(ICMAB).
They have presented their findings in a progress report (doi:10.1002/
adma.201000717) published in the
Advanced Energy Materials special
section of Advanced Materials. The
concepts behind conversion–reaction
electrode materials and the characteristic performance of a wide range of
transition-metal binary phases also are
discussed and strategies for overcoming major obstacles suggested. As the
authors point out, “The promise of
doubling the storage capacity of current
electrode materials certainly justifies
the attention of the materials science
community to this fascinating reactivity.” – Esther Levy (MaterialsViews.
com)
Visit: ICMAB www.icmab.csic.es n
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19
research briefs
Double perovskites developed for high-temp applications
A schematic of a double perovskite heterostructure magnetic tunnel junction.
Half-metallic double perovskites such as
this, often called “half metals,” are highly
sought after as components of spintronic
devices because they can either enable or
dramatically enhance the performance.
The double perovskites of half-metals
retain their magnetic ordering and, in
principle, their half-metallic behavior, to
temperatures as high as 725 K, which
makes them very attractive for technological applications.
20
withstand extreme temperatures of up
to 1,000°C without burning, because,
according to OSU researchers, they’re
already oxidized and, therefore, can
retain their properties.
In an article written in News in
Engineering, the university’s College of
Engineering publication, Joan Slattery
Wall describes the double-perovskite
structure as consisting of “eight-sided
building blocks, or octahedra – atoms
that form four-sided pyramids arranged
bottom to bottom. Four of these blocks
group together like a cube with a different atom nestled in the center.
The cubes stack together to form
the perovskite crystal. In the double
perovskite crystal, the center atom
alternates between two different atoms,
for example, iron and molybdenum in
Sr2FeMoO6, to manipulate the magnetic qualities.”
The team is led by Leonard Brillson,
a professor in electrical and computer
engineering in the school’s Center
for Emergent Materials. He explains
that the atomic latticework of double
perovskites gives the structure electromagnetic properties that can sense
temperature, pressure, magnetic field
and voltage.
“A perovskite is a building block
that has special properties and properties you can design just by choosing the
right atom to put in it and these can
make sensors and computing elements,”
Brillson says in the article.
Potential applications for double
perovskites include aircraft turbine sensors, computer circuits and phased array
antennas. The layered structure prevents loss of electrical signal, because
that typically occurs between stacked
layers.
Wall explains, “Using oxide molecular beam epitaxy, or MBE, a technique
to grow crystals on a substrate, Brillson
can ’spray paint’ atomic layers one at a
time as a thin film on a wafer, carefully
forming the perovskite crystals to minimize imperfections and allow electrons
to pass through the layers with a particular spin. Spin is a property of electrons
that a magnetic field can sense and that
doubles the amount of information carried through an electrical circuit.”
Brillson is known, in part, among
the ACerS community because he presented a well-received tutorial at the
Society’s 2010 Materials Challenges
in Alternative and Renewable Energy.
His presentation (coauthored by Sandra DeVincent Wolf and Duane B.
Dimos), “Advanced Materials for Our
Energy Future,” can be downloaded at
www.ceramics.org/meetings/meetingsarchives/energy-2010-archive.
Visit: OSU Center for Emergent
Materials www.cem.osu.edu n
Japanese group ‘prints’ amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell
created using silicon inks
Typically, photovoltaic units composed of thin-film silicon materials do
not involve amorphous or single-crystalline silicon, and making thin-films
with poly-silicon is still a frontier field
(see story, page 14). But, researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology may have
developed the world’s first thin-film
amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell
made by using liquid silicon “inks.”
The group says its units have an
energy conversion efficiency of 1.79
percent, according to Tatsuya Shimoda,
professor at the JAIST School of Mate-
(Credit T. Shimoda; JAIST.)
(Credit: Patrick Woodward; OSU.)
In March 2010, the Bulletin carried a
story on the work Ohio State University researchers were conducting on the
development of a computer-controlled
“blowtorch” to simulate the high-temperature environment in gas-turbine
engines (to provide rapid thermal
cycling of coatings to predict lifetimes
as well as understand the effects of
impurities ingested in the engines).
However, there is more work going
on at OSU in the refinement of a material that can withstand the high temperatures of turbine engines. Referred to
as double perovskites, these structures
of ceramic oxide crystals may be able to
JAIST researchers have developed three
types of silicon ink: a positively doped
(with boron) p-type, a pure silicon
(intrinsic) i-type and a negatively doped
(with phosphorus) n-type.
rials Science, who is leading the team.
Although the energy conversion
level is not a revolution, the printing
process may be a significant innovation.
The cells that are created by the
group are pin-type (sometimes noted as
p-i-n-type), where the p-, i- and n- layers are added to a glass substrate using
an innovative “printing” technique.
The group uses a method that starts
with cyclopentasilane. The CPS is
polymerized to make polysilanes. The
materials were developed a few years
ago when the researchers were learning
how to make the polysilane from the
CPS (the polymer molecules are made
by bonding SiH2 like a chain). At that
point, JAIST researchers were able to
form amorphous silicon thin-film transistors using a chemical vapor deposition procedure.
In time, the group was able to make
pin-type cells. However, the group found
it difficult to create a uniform polysilane
film with all layers being formed through
the CVP method. Thus, they shifted
their focus to a printing-based process.
The researchers say that by printing
the layers, they are able to increase the
conversion efficiency from the previous
(all CVP) method of 0.51 percent to
1.79 percent. They feel confident they
can improve conversion efficiency, but
they have a long way to go before they
catch up with the leading thin-film silicon cells, such as United Solar’s 12 percent efficiency level recently confirmed
by NREL.
Perhaps it will be more important
that they have been able to come up
with a process to mass produce amorphous silicon photovoltaic cells using
roll-to-roll manufacturing.
Visit: JAIST www.jaist.ac.jp n
Not your average melt: At absolute zero, quantum fluctuations
appear to liquefy glass
Investigators at Columbia University, Tel Aviv University’s School of
Chemistry and University of Tsukuba
(Japan) make the unexpected claim
that through quantum mechanics, cooling glass to extreme temperatures actually may cause it to melt.
At temperatures near absolute zero,
the motion of the atoms in glasses
slows, and they start to behave more
like waves than particles. The investigators say that the wavelike behavior
enables the atoms to flow and squeeze
through tiny spaces that would otherwise be too small to navigate.
The freedom of movement essentially cause the glass atoms to behave like
a fluid instead of a solid, the researchers
New release! VersioN 3.3
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21
(Credit: Eran Rabani and David Reichman; Wired.)
research briefs
In a still image taken from a simulation of movement in glass near absolute zero, the
red blob represents the possible paths available to a single atom moving around in the
crowded environment. For clarity, a possible path is shown only for one of the atoms
in the simulation.
22
careful with statistical approaches, to the
extent that they use quantum mechanics to predict glass behavior. Reichman
tells Wired, “Our paper suggests that
you have to be careful. If you’re adding
quantum effects, it can make it harder,
not easier, to search low-energy states
and solve these problems.”
Visit: Rabani Research Group: http://
rafiki.tau.ac.il/~rabani and Reichman
Group www.columbia.edu/cu/chemistry/
groups/reichman n
Extreme caution suggested:
Superhydrophobic surfaces may
have weak icephobic properties
A recent paper from GE Global
Research and MIT mechanical engineering researchers casts doubt on the
effectiveness of the ability of superhydrophobic surfaces to block ice
formation on aircraft, wind turbines,
communications towers and other applications where frost frequently appears.
The authors of the paper, which
is published in Applied Physics Letters
(doi:10.1063/1.3524513), note that
tests done during ice formation studies on how supercooled water acts on
superhydrophobic surfaces appear to
Credit Varanasi et al; Appl. Phys. Lett.
report in Nature Physics (doi:10.1038/
nphys1865).
“We had a pencil-and-paper result
a few years ago, but we didn’t believe
it,” says team member David Reichman
in a story that appeared on the Wired
website. “It seemed like a ridiculous
prediction.” But the simulations back
the idea, he adds.
The low-temperature melting has
yet to be observed in the lab, however.
“The interesting story here is that by
quantum effect, we can melt glass by
cooling it. Normally, we melt glasses
with heat. [. . .] We hope that future
laboratory experiments will prove our
predictions,” says another team member, Eran Rabani, in a press release.
The group has created an animated
simulation (available at http://bcove.
me/scz3ejv7) that illustrates how the
Columbia group thinks the atoms
migrate from their original positions
over time, behaving like a fluid.
The research was inspired by Nobel
Prize winner Philip W. Anderson, who
wrote that the understanding of classical
glasses was one of the biggest unsolved
problems in condensed-matter physics.
One practical implication of this
paper for other glass researchers is to be
ESEM images of frost formation on a superhydrophobic surface comprised of an array
of hydrophobic square posts with width,
edge-to-edge spacing and aspect ratio of 15
micrometers, 30 micrometers, and 7, respectively. (a) Dry surface. (b) – (d) Images of
frost formation on the surface. Frost nucleation and growth occurs with no particular
spatial preference on all of the available
areas, including post tops, sidewalls, and
valleys because of the uniform intrinsic wettability of the surface.
have been based on spraying or pouring
the water. Although this provides some
important information, the authors say
it is incomplete and may mask more
serious dangers, viz., it doesn’t take
into account the process of frost formaAmerican Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 90, No. 3
Two groups find cheaper, easier
route to ‘cloaking’ in visible light
tive group also was able to achieve the
effect in air. One of these researchers, Shuang Zhang, lead investigator
from the University of Birmingham’s
School of Physics and Astronomy, predicted bigger things ahead. In a paper
published in Nature Communications
(doi:10.1038/ncomms1176), he says,
“By using natural crystals for the first
time, rather than artificial metamaterials, we have been able to scale up the
size of the cloak and hide larger objects,
thousands of times bigger than the
wavelength of the light. Previous cloaks
have succeeded at the micron level
(much smaller than the thickness of a
human hair) using a nano- or microfabricated artificial composite material.
It is a very slow process to make these
structures and they also restrict the size
of the cloaking area. We believe that
by using calcite, we can start to develop
a cloak of significant size that will open
avenues for future applications of cloaking devices.”
The Institute of Physics’ Physics
World was particularly impressed with
the SMART Center’s work, naming it
one of the “Top 10 Breakthroughs of
2010.”
Visit: SMART Center: http://smart.
mit.edu/home.html n
In an unusual coincidence, two
groups are working in parallel and
somewhat ingenious routes using calcite
crystals to make objects seem to disappear.
Calcite, boron nitride, silicon carbide and other crystals (and some
plastics) are known for having birefringence (or double refraction). Briefly
put, birefringence causes a ray of light
to split into two rays. The property is
already used in LCDs and other optical
and electronics applications.
What’s novel is the two groups – one
from the SMART (Singapore MIT
Alliance for Research and Technology)
Center and the other a collaboration
among researchers at University of
Birmingham (U.K.), Imperial College,
London and Technical University of
Denmark – is that they put two prismshaped pieces of calcite next to each
other, aligning their optical axes. If the
resultant wedge (the SMART group
used a 38-millimeter 3 10-millimeter
3 2-millimeter wedge) is then put over
an object, it appears to disappear when
viewed from either side of the wedge.
The SMART group reports in Physical Review Letters
(doi:10.1103/
PhysRevLett.106.033901)
that the twodimensional effect
works for macroscopic objects
“larger than 3,500
free-space wavelengths, inside a
transparent-liquid
environment. Its
working color
range, encompassing red, green and
blue light, has
also been demonA pink object under the crystal “cloak” becomes invisible. Two
strated.”
research groups separately have created an optical cloak made
A U.K./Denout of calcite that meets, at least partially, some of the requiremark collaboraments for hiding arbitrarily sized objects.
(Credit: SMART Center; Phys. Rev. Lett.)
tion (i.e., ice formation without going
through a liquid phase).
The bad news is that, based on the
authors’ microscopy experiments looking
at frost nucleation, growth and adhesion, the authors believe that the icephobic properties of superhydrophobic
surfaces are questionable. In fact, they
say in the paper that ice adhesion can
actually increase “wherever frost can
form indiscriminately on the surface.”
The authors continue in the APL
piece, “In-flight ice accretion on aircraft
surfaces is usually attributed to the freezing of supercooled water droplets suspended in clouds that come into contact
with aircraft surfaces. However, recent
studies show that icing clouds could
be unexpectedly supersaturated, resulting in heterogeneous ice nucleation.
Hence, frost formation could also be an
important in-flight ice accretion mechanism on aircraft surfaces. Therefore, it
is important to consider frost formation
while designing icephobic surfaces and
extreme caution must be exercised in
the use of superhydrophobic surfaces for
icephobic surface treatments on ground
and in-flight applications.”
The good news is that the authors say
the insights from their studies suggest
new designs for better anti-icing surfaces.
“[A]pproaches that can spatially control nucleation (e.g., promote nucleation
on top portions of the texture to form
[Cassie–Baxter state] ice) … could reduce
ice adhesion and improve the robustness
of textured surfaces for icephobicity.”
The reference to Cassie–Baxter state
is explained in the diagram on the previous page. A water droplet on a solid
surface and surrounded by a gas forms a
characteristic contact angle. If the surface is rough and the liquid is in close
contact with the droplets, the droplet is
in what is known as the “Wenzel” state,
which promotes ice formation. If the
liquid rests on the tops of the asperities,
it is in the “Cassie–Baxter” state, which
discourages ice formation.
Visit: SuperHydroPhobic Coating:
http://superhydrophbiccoating.com n
23
Understanding patents and
managing patent-procurement costs
- Plotting a course through a shifting landscape
P
atents have attracted
much attention from
the media, industry, Congress
and judiciary in recent years
– particularly as patents
have spread into software
and business methods – raising important new issues and
unsettling much of the established order. But what’s new
for the ceramist? These changes
require new strategies, not just
for new industries (whether in
software or nanotech) but within
the more established order as well.
A principal purpose and rationale
for patent rights is to encourage
innovation by rewarding applicants
for the time, effort and expense they
often need to develop an innovation.
In the domain of ceramics, of course,
successful realization of an innovation
(Credit: Robert Sayre)
United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.
by Robert J. Sayre
24
may require many years or even decades
of research and development, and sizeable funding. Accordingly, innovative
ceramists typically operate in a reality
different from that of the college kids
who may be creating the next Google
from a dorm room on a shoestring budget. Nevertheless, our patent system
attempts to provide a single, coherent
body of law and practices to govern both
(and all other) fields. Hence, we have
the widely publicized strain on our patent system.
The basics
The nature of a patent remains
largely unchanged in the United States
and elsewhere. Specifically, the property right afforded by the “allowance”
of a patent is an exclusive right that
permits the patent owner to exclude
others from making, using, selling or
importing his/her invention within the
affected territory.
Some definitions are in order. There
are two types of patent applications:
utility and design. Utility applications
cover functional inventions, while
design applications cover aesthetic
features. Ordinarily, when people talk
about patents they mean utility patents.
In the United States, inventors initially
can pursue either a “provisional” or
“nonprovisional” patent. A provisional
application is never examined and
remains “pending” only for one year.
Within that one year, an applicant can
follow up by filing a nonprovisional
application that will be subject to the
full examination process.
With the nonprovisional application, a priority claim can be made to the
earlier provisional application, providing the applicant with the benefit (e.g.,
over competitors) of an earlier filing
date. Accordingly, a provisional application can be thought of as a lower-cost
place holder to put an early stake in the
ground before filing a nonprovisional
application. Often an applicant will file
a provisional application, spend the next
year further developing the invention
and testing the market and then evaluating whether to pursue nonprovisional
filing.
The value of a patent will largely
depend on how the claimed invention
is ultimately defined. Accordingly, the
art of patent drafting is found primarily in the claims, where the attorney
or agent must capture the invention
via words and phrases with appropriate
breadth, attempting to cover a wide
range of permutations.
The choice of a single word or
phrase in a key patent easily may be
worth millions of dollars, and its ultimate value will hinge upon such choices. Thus, it is a mistake to approach a
patent just as a commodity. Rather, the
inventor should see each as a customdrafted work. Depending on how it is
crafted, the value of patents can easily diverge as much as that between a
cheap doodle and a Picasso.
Another common misconception is
that a patent provides an affirmative
Patenting a business
model based on selling a
waste product
In one case in the soap-making
industry, the patent-applicant had found
a new use for a natural oil byproduct
that was previously thought of only as
a “still bottoms” waste product resulting
from the distillation of animal fat and
vegetable oil. Surprisingly, the applicant
discovered that injection of this waste
product into the fuel stream could substantially reduce the resulting emission
concentrations of NOx, SOx and CO
pumped out by power plants burning
hydrocarbons.
The applicant wanted to establish an
auxiliary revenue stream by selling the
waste product to utilities that needed
to reduce emissions and sought a patent on this business model. Ultimately,
some of the allowed claims focused on
the chemistry of the product, while others tied in the concept of providing the
waste product to utilities that obtain a
benefit from burning the product (e.g.,
reducing emissions to avoid fines or to
meet standards for continued operation)
under a pollution-emission regulation.
right to practice an invention. It does
not. For example, in the competitive
field of semiconductors, a single chip
may include features covered by many
different patents. The scope of some
of those patents may be overlapping.
This can make it impossible to practice
under one patent without also infringing another patent.
Such situations sometimes are
resolved via cross-licensing. “Patent
pools” even have developed in certain
industries. However, it is often the case
that each participant will need a collection of patents to effectively provide the
“price of admission” to the pool.
The point is that patents can serve
a variety of functions, including as a
defense (e.g., to respond with crossclaims if and when a competitor asserts
patents) and as an asset to attract
financing or partners.
Ultimately, however, perhaps the
greatest value inherent to patents resides
in their utility to legally exclude competition for economic gain. This provides a
rare safe haven from the procompetitive
restrictions of the antitrust laws in the
United States, Europe and elsewhere.
Classes of patentable subject
matter
The scope of patentable subject matter in the United States “may include
anything under the sun that is made
by man” (a statement by P.J. Federico,
a principal drafter of the U.S. Patent
Act that has been approvingly quoted
by the Supreme Court). Accordingly,
classes of patentable subject matter that
one may target in a patent can include
the following:
• Compositions and structures (e.g.,
a new molecular formula, a new crystalline structure or even a new intermediate composition in a multistep chemical
reaction);
• Products or components (e.g., a
bicycle or a new shock suspension for a
bicycle);
• Processes and methods;
• Computer software; and
• Business methods.
A ceramist will benefit by thinking
about each of these classes as a patent application is being drafted: The
25
Understanding patents and managing patent-procurement costs
various classes are often examined
differently and each can offer distinct
advantages when asserted against a
competitor in the context of patent
infringement.
For example, an inventor may start
with a notion of a patent for a new composition. However, in the patent application, the inventor also should attempt
to cover the methods of making and the
techniques for using the novel composition in desired applications. One also
may be able to patent the software governing a unique automated fabrication
process, and possibly fabrication tools
and new intermediate compounds.
Furthermore, if the composition
lends itself to new markets and business
models, those models also may be patented as business methods. Although
the courts have trimmed back the
patent eligibility of business methods,
these claims remain very much alive
where tangible products are involved in
real-world applications. (See sidebar for
business-method story.)
Should you or shouldn’t you?
Does the pursuit of a patent always
make sense? Of course, the answer is
no, and there is a variety of reasons
why. The first issue is cost. The median
cost for a relatively complex original
U.S. nonprovisional patent application – using data from the biotech and
chemical fields, the grouping closest to
materials science – is $12,000, according to the last cost survey (2008) published by the American Intellectual
Property Law Association. Meanwhile,
the expected lifetime cost of a U.S.
patent is likely to be in the ballpark of
$30,000. Although much about the patent examination process cannot be reliably predicted at the outset, a general
understanding of expected investments
and expenses is critical for budgeting
and decision-making purposes.
A second reason why a patent may
not make sense is the 20-year patent
term. Ceramists are well aware that
many technologies require decades of
research and development before they
make a major impact on the market.
In this regard, my experience with
yttrium barium copper oxide super26
Patent ‘Phase Diagram’
conductors in the late 1980s may be
instructive: Although superconductors are now important components
in a variety of applications, the payoff
did not match the media hype of that
era, when fast and huge payoffs were
expected. In many cases, the realized
commercial value of superconductivityrelated patents, even 20 years after
important innovations, has been minimal. Thus, in that context, patents may
be a somewhat ill-fitted solution.
A third reason why a patent may
not make sense is that a patent will
be published, disclosing your idea to
the world. Consider the trade-off: In
exchange for the exclusive allowance
and rights provided by a patent, the
inventor must disclose the idea to the
public. However, if the inventor can
keep the idea secret, he or she may
alternatively protect the idea as a trade
secret. (Nevertheless, many inventions
relating to materials can be analyzed
after being introduced to the market
and are difficult to keep secret.)
Evaluating paths to protection
In a light-hearted effort to provide
a format for interpretation friendly
to ceramists, I present the common
options for protecting an invention via
trade secret or patenting in the format
of a phase diagram (though it is not
quite a binary system).
Depending on the perceived value
of an invention, the assessed likelihood
of obtaining a patent, the financial
resources (and market ambitions) of the
applicant and the stage of development
of the invention, an inventor can begin
to chart a sensible course for protecting
the intellectual assets.
“Trade secret” is placed at the top
because it can provide the lowest-cost
alternative (where appropriate, after
carefully considering the possibility of
being defeated by reverse engineering).
On the other hand, if the inventor
has an early-stage invention and/or
wishes to minimize initial costs (putting you in the lower right quadrant),
a “provisional” patent application in
the United States or a “utility model”
abroad often will be the smart choice.
When, however, you have a fairlywell-developed, high-value invention
and global marketing prospects, your
best choice often will be an international Patent Cooperation Treaty application.
Finally, the inventor can simply file
a domestic utility patent application
in one’s home country, absent sizeable
demand abroad or an expectation that
foreign customers will be targeted.
Managing patent expenses
As already noted, the required
investment for a U.S. patent can be
41 percent
mid year
2009
Fiscal year
The number of successful U.S. patent applications dropped sharply after 1999.
(Credit: Robert Sayre, with data from the USPTO)
Successful applications (percent)
(Credit: Robert Sayre)
Trademark Office introduced an
easy and effective online filing
system that allows filing of a patent application simply by printing the documents to PDF format and loading them onto the
USPTO’s secure online portal.
This online ability, combined with increasing client
preference for email communications, now allows for a nearThe author, left, with USPTO Director David Kappos. paperless process that would
have been almost unthinkable
in
nearly
any legal practice as recently
substantial, and this can be multiplied
as
a
decade
ago. Besides making the
by a few fold for more global protection
process
much
more efficient, it reduces
across major markets. The good news
the
attorney’s
overhead and nickel-andis that opportunities for lowering those
dime expensing. In addition, software
costs are expanding.
programs, such as ClaimMaster, now
As a first step, inventors benefit
exist that provide very effective docuwhen they ask for an attorney’s estiment review, saving hours of attorney
mate for at least the cost of preparing
time. In fact, there are at least partially
and filing the application. Perhaps
not surprisingly, if no cost guideline
automated and online services, with
is established, particularly with an
fairly reliable cost estimates, that can
associate at a large law firm, there may
be used for patent filing, examination
be an unpleasant surprise when the
and maintenance in nearly every counbill arrives. The inventor also should
try worldwide.
demand some say regarding which
Besides automation, there are some
attorney or agent is selected to actually
new options available to reduce offiperform the work (considering, particu- cial fees for inventors, especially when
larly, experience and qualifications).
international markets and protection
Moreover, much of patent-law pracare a consideration. For example, U.S.tice, outside of the analytical aspects,
based applicants now can select the
now can be automated, a situation that
Korean Intellectual Property Office to
is starting to reshape law firms. For
conduct the search and examination
example, I left a large firm in Boston a
of PCT applications for a substantially
few years ago after the U.S. Patent and
lower cost than that charged by the
USPTO and European Patent Office.
Avenues for shortening the time
period for examination also are increasingly available, particularly for inventions that provide “green” benefits.
Patent applications that provide an
environmental benefit are entitled to
accelerated examination in this country.
Surprisingly, relatively few inventors
(perhaps fewer than 1,000) have taken
advantage of this accelerated examination option thus far.
Beating the odds
Ultimately, the best way to save
costs is to make a sufficient investment
in the preparation of a well-drafted patent application. But depending where
one looks in recent history, the odds
are not necessarily in the inventor’s
favor.
The success or “allowance” rate for
U.S. patent applications, as of January
2011, is either 45 percent or 62 percent, depending on how “Requests for
Continued Examination” are counted
(this data and other interesting statistics are available at the USPTO “dashboard” (www.uspto.gov/dashboards/
patents/main.dashxml)). The lower
number is the one more frequently
reported, and it plunged from highs of
about 70 percent from 1998 to 2001 all
the way down to percentages in the low
40’s in 2008 and 2009.
The allowance rate began to climb
back out of this dark hole in late
2009 after the appointment of current USPTO Director David Kappos. I
recently had the opportunity to speak
with Kappos, and he said his management team is working hard to eliminate
what he termed “garbage” rejections
and objections by examiners. He said
they are removing “dysfunctional
incentives” that encourage rejections.
Regardless, with an allowance rate
still near 50–50, the inventor must clear
a fairly high hurdle to obtain a U.S. patent, and an even higher hurdle to obtain
a patent that can withstand litigation
and provide meaningful coverage.
Examiner interaction
However, the use of smart tactics in
regard to interactions with an examiner
27
(Credit Robert Sayre.)
Understanding patents and managing patent-procurement costs
Patent-drafting workshop at the ARIPO headquarters, Harare, Zimbabwe, September 2009. ARIPO Director General Gift Sibanda,
is seated front row, center, in the dark suit, while I am at far right.
can, nevertheless, allow the inventor
to improve the likelihood of approval.
One advantage for the ceramist is that
the experience level of examiners in
various materials science-intensive
technologies is often higher than that
in other fields. Consequently, the
examiners in materials science- and
chemistry-related technologies are,
frankly, often more reasonable than
many others (stories abound, for example, of examiners in USPTO’s businessmethod reviews who have taken pride
in not having allowed any patent applications in many months or even years).
Whether an application is assigned
to a veteran examiner or a rookie, it is
important for the attorney (and sometimes the inventor) to establish a strong
rapport with the examiner. Trust and an
open dialogue with the examiner often
can secure a patent allowance much
more quickly than is otherwise possible.
An attorney can do so with strong, clear,
respectful writing and communication,
always attempting to perceive what the
examiner “wants” and the nature of his
or her root concerns.
In-person interviews
The inventor often has a key role to
play. An applicant generally has a right
to interview an examiner in person or
via telephone during the examination.
When an application roadblock surfaces, conducting an interview is usually
the most efficient way to resolve it.
Sometimes the issues can be resolved
via a telephone interview, although
an in-person interview at the USPTO
is often the most effective strategy. Its
28
headquarters are close to the Reagan
National Airport, making for an easy
one-day trip. Multiple interviews often
can be packaged into a single trip when
several applications are pending.
The key issue in establishing patentability is usually “obviousness.” The
foremost requirements for obtaining
a patent are that the invention must
be new and nonobvious. Thus, obviousness is to be avoided by a patent
applicant. In many foreign countries
(e.g., in Europe), the term “inventive
step” is used rather than “nonobvious,”
although the terms are synonymous.
The examiner’s determination on
the invention’s obviousness entails a
fair degree of subjectivity and a wide
berth of discretion. Consequently, it
is helpful to try to understand how
a particular examiner thinks about
the claim. The goal is to find clues to
where bridges can be built to reach
mutually satisfactory agreements as to
allowable claim language.
When an attorney and inventor visit
an examiner’s office, the photos and
memorabilia, for example, can provide
insights, and, in an in-person interview,
the examiner’s nonverbal communication may help identify an opening for
allowance. This is far more beneficial
than accepting the examiner’s cold words
fixed in official print communications.
Conventional wisdom among many
patent attorneys holds that an inventor should not participate in examiner
interviews, for fear that the inventor
will say something compromising without considering its legal implications. I
disagree. I’ve witnessed how the inven-
tor’s participation in in-person and telephone interviews has helped to secure
an allowance. Of course, a brief preinterview planning session between the
attorney and inventor can reduce the
risk of any potential gaffes by establishing agreement as to which points will
be pushed to establish patentability.
Another consideration is that, as
charming as a patent attorney attempts
to be, many examiners – who tend to
be former engineers – find it refreshing
to speak directly with the practitioner
who happened to invent the subject
matter under examination, and who
best understands the invention. The
examiner may be much more motivated
to help after meeting the inventor and
hearing the inventor’s story. Indeed,
having an examiner completely reverse
a position after an in-person meeting is
not uncommon. Unreasonable objections often disappear after the examiner’s interest is sparked and empathy is
established. Thus, the inventor–applicant should expect to play a key role in
securing an allowance.
International patenting
Finally, returning to the “phase diagram,” the lower left of it represents
the area of patenting internationally.
The PCT provides a convenient and
cost-effective framework for obtaining
patents abroad. A single PCT filing
provides at least a preliminary patentability search and opinion, and provides
a 30-month window before an applicant
needs to ultimately select countries
(or regions) targeted for entering the
“national phase.”
(Credit World Intellectual Property Organization)
World Patent Cooperation
Countries colored blue are Patent Cooperation Treaty “Contracting States.”
As shown in the map, most countries have signed on to the PCT.
Accordingly, a PCT application provides
a solid choice for preserving the option
to pursue patent rights in many countries for a period of time that is usually
sufficient to assess market opportunities.
Another option for securing a patent
abroad in either a PCT or non-PCT
member country is to proceed with a
direct foreign filing before the patent
office of the selected country or region.
In either case, an applicant ultimately
will need to select the countries/regions
where patent rights are sought.
Although it is true that patent rights
are territorially limited and protection
afforded only in those countries where
a patent is obtained, the reality may be
different: In many situations and technology involved, locking up patents in
the United States, Europe and perhaps
a small handful of other key countries
often is enough to effectively lock out
competitors.
Key considerations for determining
where to file include:
• The key markets for customers of a
particular technology,
• The home countries of competitors, and
• The manufacturing hubs for a
particular technology (e.g., if you are
manufacturing electronics components,
you may want to file across southeast
Asia).
Nevertheless, it is critical that the
applicant not be blinded by the current
state of the market. With a 20-year
patent term, the applicant must think
about where the market could be in 10
to 15 years. Right now that increasingly
means thinking about China. That
nation’s State Intellectual Property
Office, in my experience, has been
quite good, although enforcement of
patents in Chinese courts presents a
much greater challenge.
What other regions and markets
should an inventor consider? One
answer is Africa. Perhaps it’s still a
bit early to aggressively file patents in
Africa, and currently only “Big Pharma”
is doing so on a broad scale. But, at least
in pockets, an increasing number of
African nations are rising fast.
Each year, I visit the African
Regional Intellectual Property
Organization (Harare, Zimbabwe) or
another African nation as a patentdrafting instructor for the World
Intellectual Property Organization (the
United Nations agency that manages
the PCT). Without exception, I have
been impressed by the quality of patent examination at ARIPO and the
commitment toward building a strong
infrastructure for patents by agents,
attorneys, innovators and government
officials across Africa.
There is no question that a clear
understanding of the value and role of
patents is well understood across the
continent. And many of the same tools
and tactics for obtaining allowances
from the USPTO will work just the
same at SIPO, ARIPO and elsewhere,
because there are far more commonalities than difference in patent practice
worldwide.
About the author
Robert Sayre is a patent attorney at
Modern Times Legal (www.mxlegal.
com) in Cambridge, Mass., and a patent-drafting instructor for the WIPO.
He has a B.S. in ceramic engineering
from Clemson University and a J.D.
from Duke University School of Law.
He also is a past chair of ACerS New
England Section. n
Author Robert Sayre has prepared a full
“patent cost report” that outlines typical costs.
This report is available at www.mxlegal.com/
resources/free-reports/.
29
bulletin
cover story
Business, licensing and intellectual
property management
by Wendy Hankle
A
bout 26 years ago,
glass beads captured
the attention of two professors in Missouri, Delbert
Day (Missouri University of
Science and Technlogy) and
Gary Erhardt (University
of Missouri-Columbia). No,
not the flashy specimens that
adorned the regrettable styles of
the 1980s. Think smaller. Okay,
now even smaller than that. Day
and Erhardt’s beads were microscopic spheres capable of traveling
through the human body, delivering radioactive materials in an
effort to stop cancer. They knew
they were onto something, but back
then, it sounded too far out – and no
one was buying it.
Today, the company Day founded,
Mo-Sci Corporation, performs independent research and development
on glass products plus contractual
research for the federal government
and commercial companies. Mo-Sci
has come a long way from those glass
beads, and a once unfathomable idea
now has become the basis for a successful,
30
well-known company. How did it happen? Delbert’s son Ted Day explains.
“I don’t know if the technology
would’ve gone anywhere if Dad wasn’t
trying to push it,” says Ted, to whom
Delbert sold the business in 1998. “So
the choice was to let the technology
go to waste, or go out and develop it
himself.”
It’s a situation many university and
federal lab researchers have found – and
still find – themselves encountering:
A promising technology is ready for
primetime, but … how does it get to
center stage?
A long road
Day and Erhardt were not only
forward-thinking inventors – they were
in the right place at the right time.
The 1980s were the beginning of a hot
time for technology transfer and saw
Congress approve two separate acts:
Bayh–Dole and Stevenson–Wydler.
The acts, passed in 1980, codified the
right for researchers in universities,
nonprofits, small businesses and federal
labs with intellectual property originating from federal-government-funded
research to see financial benefit for
their discoveries. The legislation also
served to make scientific and technological developments accessible to
more users, who were enabled to further
develop the technology for financial
gain.
Before the acts were implemented,
“There was no government-wide policy
regarding ownership of inventions
made by government contractors and
grantees under federal funding,” cites
a 1999 document by the University of
California Council on Governmental
Relations. The document continues,
“Inconsistencies in policies and practices among the various funding agencies resulted in a very limited flow of
government-funded inventions to the
private sector.”
What this meant from a practical basis was that in 1980, the federal
government held title to about 28,000
patents, of which fewer than 5 percent
were licensed to industry for development of commercial products, according to a 1999 report of the General
Accounting Office. Only rarely – and
after a long and arduous process – could
Intellectual property resources
One of the biggest tools researchers can arm themselves with when considering the
ins and outs of technology transfer is an understanding of intellectual property principles.
Here are a few places to gain some knowledge.
• Rolf Claessen’s IP Newsflash provides a customizable source for information about
intellectual property, including press releases, case law and specific patents. Find it on
the Web at www.ipnewsflash.com.
• The United States Trademark and Patent Office’s Website is a goldmine. Here, one
can find information on patents, trademarks, and law and policy. Dig deep into the site –
www.uspto.gov – to find an extensive selection of resources.
• At www.technologytransfertactics.com, current events and quick bites can be found
via a blog, while a newsletter provides more in-depth guidance and strategies.
• In a 1993 publication, the potential of a uniform worldwide intellectual property rights
system is explored. Global Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights in Science and
Technology includes the published proceedings of a major conference in 1992 exploring
the topic as well as case studies and a comprehensive view of IP matters around the
globe.
• Narrowing the scope a bit, a thorough explanation of IP and technology transfer
in this country can be found in Intellectual Property Experiences in the United States
Scientific Community. This 2007 report by the American Association for the Advancement
of Science Project on Science and Intellectual Property in the Public Interest delves into
the how-tos of IP.
the inventing organization gain the
ownership of an invention.
More often, the government held the
title and made the inventions available
through nonexclusive licenses to anyone who wanted them. As one might
imagine, companies without exclusive
rights under government patents were
less than thrilled to make investments
in products, given their competitors
also could access licenses to manufacture and market like products.
“All of this money goes into technology, but, prior to the act, there was no
motivation for anyone to license [it]
out,” says technology transfer consultant Marti Elder, who works with the
TechLink Center at Montana State
University. Ultimately, that meant
taxpayers funding the federal research
didn’t receive the benefit of products or
economic development that could have
stemmed from such research.
The new laws provided for nonprofit
organizations (including universities)
or small businesses to retain the title to
any invention made as a result of federally funded R&D (with a few exceptions). It also addressed the licensing
of inventions to which the government
retained title. In return for the rights,
universities are required to:
• Report disclosed inventions to the
funding agency;
• File for patent protection;
• Actively pursue the commercialization of the inventions;
• Share royalties with the inventor
and use any remaining income for education and research;
• Give preference to small businesses
interested in obtaining licenses; and
• Work to ensure that manufacturing resulting from the inventions occurs
in the United States.
And, years later, adjustments to
Stevenson–Wydler put finer points on
the rights and responsibilities inherent in research done at federal labs.
Cooperative research and development agreements, or CRADAs, were
created by the Federal Technology
Transfer Act of 1986, an amendment to
Stevenson–Wydler. CRADAs were initially applicable to government-owned
and government-operated laboratories,
31
Patents
issued
Licenses
and options
signed
Royalty
income
(000’s)
Fiscal year
2011YTD
10
11
3
3
$72
2010
34
25
13
10
$430
2009
40
21
4
27
$196
2008
35
16
7
16
$348
2007
21
22
6
7
$379
2006
35
18
4
7
$186
2005
17
13
2
4
$96
2004
24
13
3
9
$82
2003
14
17
0
0
$56
2002
19
5
4
2
$100
2001
12
4
0
1
$11
Missouri S&T technology transfers activities.
but a fiscal year 1990 Department of
Defense Authorization again amended
Stevenson–Wydler to extend the right
to use CRADAs to government-owned,
contractor-operated labs.
“The idea behind the CRADA is
that we have this fantastic investment in facilities and personnel funded
by the taxpayers,” says Elder, whose
TechLink group helps DOD labs partner with private-sector companies to
solve problems and create new business opportunities. Companies can
access such resources, but have to pay
for them. Should an invention result,
the CRADA protects both parties.
“Companies do have the rights to their
intellectual property, to license anything new that comes about from it,”
she says. “It’s a really good mechanism
for companies to access testing and
equipment they may not already have
access to.”
Finding the right resources
Access to resources – and the benefits that can come from acquiring
them – is a huge issue when it comes
to moving a technology from bench to
market. Work with university, federal
and private partners has been at the
core of SAGE Electrochromics’ efforts
to develop reliable high-performance,
energy-saving electrochromic technology for commercial and residential
buildings. The company’s “smart glass”
technology helps lower energy bills by
32
allowing users to adjust the tint of windows based on temperature and energy
needs. In the summer, users can press
a button to tint windows, controlling
solar heat gain. In the winter, they can
clear the tint to allow more light – and
additional heat – in.
The company was founded in 1989
by John Van Dine and initially operated out of a small laboratory in Valley
Cottage, N.Y., before moving its operations to the Department of Ceramic
Science and Engineering at Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey.
“Rutgers offered some lab space to
SAGE at a very reasonable price. I
think it was the first time they had
tried to nucleate a company at the
Center for Ceramic Research” at
Rutgers, says Neil Sbar, SAGE’s vice
president of technology. In 1991,
Van Dine submitted a proposal in the
National Institute of Standards and
Technology’s Advanced Technology
Program General Competition. That
proposal was unsuccessful, but Van
Dine, encouraged to strengthen his
plan by working with a technology
partner, formed a joint R&D venture
with the 3M Corporation. (The two
companies brought in scientists from
Rutgers’ center as collaborators.) The
plan was to build on SAGE’s electrochromic synthesis and processing
experience and draw on 3M’s module
technology, manufacturing and commercialization skills.
(Source: Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development.)
Patent
applications
filed
Disclosures
received
The joint venture submitted a successful proposal in the Advanced
Technology Program’s 1992 General
Competition. ATP eventually provided $3.472 million toward research,
matched by $3.821 million from 3M
and SAGE. The smart windows developed by SAGE, 3M and the Rutgers
professors have a series of thin conducting layers that change optical properties
with the application of electrical voltage. “This was an important partnership in moving ahead in materials and
device structures,” says Sbar. Rutgers
faculty are on some of SAGE’s patents.
Rutgers (and other universities) also
offered “special capabilities we were
able to take advantage of,” says Sbar.
In late 1998, after several years of
R&D at Rutgers, SAGE moved to its
pilot line phase. It made a geographic
move as well, taking its operations
west to Minnesota. For the next five
years, it refined production processes
and continued to develop its products.
Third-party entities, including the
Department of Energy, also took part in
the testing.
Sbar says there are pluses and
minuses to working with universities
such as Rutgers and the University of
Minnesota (a more recent partner).
“Getting grants, it’s nice to have a university to partner with, especially with
the [National Science Foundation],”
says Sbar. A university partnership is
also beneficial to companies needing
resources. “On the other hand, I think
we contributed a significant amount of
money from the university for them to
acquire some special analytical tools,
so it was a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Sbar. “The negative side is
the way the university functions. If you
have urgent stuff that needs to be done
right away, a university is probably not
the best place.”
SAGE recently announced that
Saint-Gobain made an $80 million
equity investment in the company.
Saint-Gobain is contributing its electrochromic glass intellectual property to
SAGE. Both companies’ manufacturing
and R&D efforts in this arena will be
merged to make windows in Faribault,
Minn.
(Credit: SAGE)
The development of SAGE’s glass-tinting technology involved support from universities, private labs and the NSF.
Working with government partners
Pro-Perma Engineered Coatings is
another company navigating the waters
of technology transfer with an outside
entity – the federal government. The
company manufactures a glass-based
coating for reinforcement bars, which is
an engineered mixture of glass, clay and
water that is applied as a slurry to rebar,
then heated to more than 1,400 degrees
Fahrenheit. The coating sticks fast to
steel, promoting bonding with concrete
and working to prevent corrosion from
water or salt. This coated rebar is expected to be a competitor to polymer-coated
and galvanized rebar currently used in
the construction industry.
Although the technology is young,
the demand for PPEC’s product could
be great. “There’s a $4 billion market
just for corrosion-resistant rebar in the
U.S.,” says Mike Koenigstein, managing
partner of PPEC and a Missouri S&T
grad with a bachelor’s in ceramic engineering. “Worldwide, it’s huge.”
The technology in use by PPEC
was originally developed by the Army
Corps of Engineers, which used it
to create blast-resistant walls. PPEC
gained a license for that original technology through the federal government,
but sought help from Missouri S&T
researchers to provide more data, says
Koenigstein. PPEC has been working
with the Corps for six years. Four years
ago it contacted the university. “It
wasn’t until we got to Missouri S&T
that things really picked up,” he says. It
was at S&T that a special formulation
of the coating was developed by a team
of researchers led by Richard Brow,
curators’ professor of materials science
and engineering and Genda Chen,
professor of civil, architectural and
environmental engineering and interim
director of the Center for Infrastructure
Engineering Studies at Missouri S&T.
As a party to the invention, PPEC was
able to get the exclusive license for the
technology.
“We’re getting small jobs through
the Corps, and that’s helping pay the
bills. It can really make a difference on
a lot of levels,” Koenigstein says. For
instance, he says, such work also serves
to challenge the conception that the
ceramic industry is concerned only with
whiteware. “One of the things we have
to do is make people understand what
our products can do,” says Koenigstein.
To that end, PPEC also engaged
the services of a technology transfer
consultant working at Montana State’s
TechLink center. “There are a lot of
pitfalls out there,” says Koenigstein. The
consultant “was very, very helpful to us
and a good sounding board,” he says.
Technology transfer offices
Serving the same purpose as a consultant – except in a different setting
– is the university technology transfer
office. These offices are resources aimed
at identifying research with commercial
potential and determining the best way
to exploit it. The offices deal with the
nuts and bolts related to patenting and
licensing as well as work to link the
products of research with potential commercial users. The commercialization
process varies. It can involve licensing
agreements, joint ventures, partnerships
or spinoffs. Staffers often have business,
legal and research background.
So, what’s been the result of this
type of attention?
According to the Association of
University Technology Managers,
before 1980, fewer than 250 patents
were issued to U.S. universities annually. It was rare that discoveries were
commercialized. By Fiscal Year 2002,
5,327 new license agreements were
signed. Moreover, according to the
AUTM’s website (www.autm.net),
“Between FY 1991 and FY 2004,
annual invention disclosures increased
more than 290 percent (to 18,178),
new patents filed increased nearly 450
percent (to 11,089) and new licenses
and options executed increased about
510 percent (to 5,329).” Also in FY
2002, AUTM members reported 569
new product introductions, and almost
23 percent of members’ 26,086 active
license agreements saw product sales
by licensees. According to AUTM’s FY
2007 U.S. Licensing Survey, in 2007,
total research expenditures by U.S.
universities, hospitals and research
institutions was $48.8 billion. Of that
amount, industry support for R&D on
college campuses represented 7 percent
of the overall funding of university
research, an amount eclipsed by the 65
percent provided by federal agencies,
but not insignificant.
Prior to becoming director of the
Office of Technology Transfer and
Economic Development at Missouri
S&T, Keith Strassner spent 25 years
in the chemical industry. “One of the
things the university wanted was some33
one who could talk business, who had
done licensing and intellectual property
management,” he says. Strassner came to
Missouri S&T about five years ago, after
Missouri’s system, which previously had
such an office only in Columbia, acted
to establish technology transfer offices at
each of its four campuses. Doing so “gets
us a lot closer to the inventors and the
laboratories,” Strassner says. Early on,
staffers in the office meet with faculty
and graduate students to educate them
on technology transfer, intellectual
property and how to best protect their
and the university’s rights, Strassner
says. Staffers also research the marketplace to see what’s been patented and if
an idea truly is patentable. Should that
be the case, the office aids in filing the
patent, seeking out potential licensees or
partners – or supporting researchers in
starting their own businesses, if there is
interest in doing so.
The process
Licensing revenues are divided
depending on the formula adopted by
an individual institution. That said, an
equal three-way split among researcher,
university department and university as
a whole is not uncommon. University
revenues often help pay for graduate
research assistants, equipment, funding for further research, a portion of
the legal fees associated with patenting
and licensing as well as the expenses
of the technology transfer office staff.
Despite the financial benefit the
revenue-sharing elements provide, “I
don’t think it’s the primary reason” for
faculty members’ interest in commercializing their research, says Arundeep
S. Pradhan, immediate past president
of AUTM and associate vice president
for Technology Transfer and Business
Development at Oregon Health and
Science University. “In talking with
faculty and working with faculty over
the years ... really, they want to see
their research being used in a tangible
form that has public benefit.”
A university may request equity in
a company in exchange for a license.
It also could charge up-front fees,
milestone fees and due diligence fees,
Pradhan says. Licensing agreements
34
combine financial and nonfinancial
obligations. Says Pradhan, “The university will stay involved, but it’s a handsoff involvement ... we do want to make
sure that when we license a technology,
that appropriate resources are allocated
for the further development of it.”
And if there are problems, the university can terminate the agreement.
“From one respect, we are stewards of
the intellectual property that was created by taxpayer funds, and we’re interested in making sure that the technology is getting utilized,” Pradhan says.
The deals that the office strikes with
licensees vary, according to Strassner.
Faculty start ups get a sweeter deal than
do outsiders, but the university doesn’t
want to put too high of an initial burden on a company, he says. “Our real
operating philosophy is shared success
– we don’t want to put them out of
business.” And once money from the
licenses comes in, inventors get onethird of every $1 as a royalty payment.
The rest goes to their department and
the university system, Strassner says.
Licensing versus spinoff
It’s fair to say it’s more common for
a university researcher to opt for licensing a patent rather than starting a spinoff company. The decision “is made at
the technology transfer office level by
the faculty member whose invention it
is. A large part in guiding the decision
is if he or she is saying, ‘I really want
to establish a company around this,’”
Pradhan says. If so, “most technology
transfer offices will work with them
on business opportunities, marketing,
etc.,” he says. “Twenty years ago, we
would have just given them the license
and said, ‘good luck,’ but now we’ve
learned.”
Says Pradhan, faculty “already work
60 hours a week [and] being an entrepreneur is another 50 to 60 hours a
week. It’s a time commitment, and
you have to talk about what’s going
to happen here. Here are the nuts and
bolts and pieces you need to make a
company be successful.” Along with the
technology, those important elements
include proper management and sufficient capital, he says. The decision to
start a spinoff company or license the
technology “depends on the industry, it
depends on the technology, on desire –
there are many things that go into that
decision,” Pradhan says. “Sometimes,
it’s just a lot easier to license it.”
The Office of Technology Transfer
and Economic Development at Missouri
S&T operates a Small Business and
Technology Development Centers
service location under a contract with
the University of Missouri Extension
and funded by the Small Business
Administration. “We can help them put
a business plan together, help them file
for business registration, raise capital,
all those things,” Strassner says. “If you
want to start your own business, we’re
kind of a one-stop shop. ... We made it
really easy, so if you want to start your
own business, you can start your own
business.” Strassner continues, “The
benefit of a spinoff is you do create jobs,
you do create employment opportunities,” and those typically remain in the
community, a key feature because economic development is one of his office’s
major goals. That said, he says, “We
want to make sure everybody goes into
it with their eyes wide open. [A startup]
is not one-hour-a-week on the side. It’s
a lot more complicated than that.”
Although “complicated” seems to
lend itself effortlessly to technology
transfer efforts, the environment has
evolved a lot since Delbert Day’s day.
Moving from the lab bench to selling
yourself – and your widget – isn’t an
easy transition for many researchers to
make. Today, however, more resources
are available to protect the interests of
researchers, license holders, universities
and laboratories. It’s a good thing, too
– although trailblazers such as Day still
inspire awe.
“Delbert Day is kind of the one that
young faculty on campus look to and
say, ‘I want to do that with my own
business,’” says Strassner. “Delbert
is one in a million, though. Usually,
you’ve got either a great engineering
mind or a great science mind. But, he
knows business too, and that combination is a very unique mindset.” n
super
early
bird
savings!
Ceramic Leadership Summit 2011
August 1–3, 2011 • Hyatt Regency Baltimore • Baltimore, Md.
The Ceramic Leadership Summit 2011 will discuss business opportunities, emerging technologies and critical areas for scientific advancement and process innovations that challenge the ceramic materials
community. The meeting consists of four general sessions and three
concurrent tracks. CLS 2011 provides the unique opportunity to participate in facilitated discussions, to address nontechnical issues that help
shape the future of ceramics and to interact with other leaders from the
ceramics and glass materials community.
Super Early Bird pricing ends May 16
Sign up now to save $225. Access the complete technical program
at www.ceramics.org/cls2011
Tuesday, aug. 2, 2011
GeneRAL SeSSion 1
10:00 a.m. To NooN
advancing materials Technology in a Complex World
Corporate leaders provide their perspectives on the global economic,
technological and environmental challenges and opportunities facing
the ceramic materials and technologies community. each talk will be
followed by a facilitated dialogue with Summit participants.
advanced Ceramics for sustainability – View
from siemens Corporate Technology
Speaker: Wolfgang Rossner, R&D Manager,
Siemens AG, Corporate Technology
GeneRAL SeSSion 2
1:30 To 3:00 p.m.
From Researcher to Business Leader
Start-up businesses are an integral part of the ceramic materials
community. Some people have successfully transitioned from being a
researcher to launching and managing a business. Three tech-savvy
leaders of ceramics-related companies provide case studies on building
businesses based on materials technology. The case studies will be followed by a facilitated panel discussion.
Bart Riley
Ted Day
Marina Pascucci
Speaker: Bart Riley, Founder, CTo, A123 Systems
Speaker: Ted Day, President, Mo-Sci Corporation
Speaker: Marina Pascucci, President, Ceranova Corporation
!
GeneRAL SeSSion
ion 3
oon
g
n
i
om
3:30 To 5:00 p.m.
Business opportunities and strategies in emerging
markets
C
S
Wolfgang Rossner
emerging applications and Challenges in
using Ceramic materials at general electric
Speaker: Krishan L. Luthra, Technology Leader –
Ceramics & Metallurgy, Ge Global Research
Krishan L. Luthra
Know someone at your company, institution or university
who is a rising star? Nominate that person to be a part of the
Future Leaders program at the Ceramic Leadership summit.
participants will build leadership development plans that they
can take away and continue working on throughout the year. To
nominate young professionals or for more information, contact
megan Bricker at [email protected].
WedNesday, aug. 3, 2011
3:15 To 5:00 p.m.
CLoSinG GeneRAL SeSSion
Connecting Research, Technology and manufacturing
Research and innovation are critical to development of technology that
can transform the world. What are some of the programs in the United
States and in europe that make a connection among research, technology and manufacturing? How do these programs or similar programs
help the ceramic materials community?
Speaker: Alexander Michaelis, Director, Fraunhofer
institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems
Alexander Michaelis
35
Ceramic Leadership Summit 2011
The three concurrent tracks: energy innovations, Business of Ceramics and innovative Applications for Ceramic Materials each offer five
sessions on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011. Register at www.ceramics.org/cls2011 before May 16 to save $225.
eneRGy innovATionS
8:30 To 9:25 a.m.
Batteries: Where are We Heading?
1:00 To 2:55 p.m.
Business Valuation
Speaker: Coming Soon!
innovATive APPLiCATionS FoR CeRAMiC MATeRiALS
8:30 To 9:25 a.m.
ultra-High-Temperature Ceramics for extreme environmental applications
9:30 To 10:25 a.m.
Ceramic Components for Fuel Cells and
other energy applications
Speaker: John olenick, enrG inc.
Speaker: Allen oppenheimer, A. M. oppenheimer inc.
9:30 To 10:25 a.m.
glass & Ceramics for advanced Biomedical applications
John olenick
10:45 To 11:40 a.m.
Will solar energy Be Widely adopted?
Speaker: Ryne Raffaelle, national Renewable energy Lab
Speaker: Steve Jung, Mo-Sci Corporation
1:00 To 1:55 p.m.
Ceramic applications in the automotive Industry
1:00 To 1:55 p.m.
Role of Ceramics in Nuclear energy
Speaker: Michael J. Hoffmann, Karlsruhe institute of Technology
(KiT)
2:00 To 2:55 p.m.
advances in glass strength and Their Impact
on society
2:00 To 2:55 p.m.
materials Needs in alternative & Renewable energy for
the automotive Industry
Speaker: Mark verbrugge, General Motors Research &
Development Center
BUSineSS oF CeRAMiCS
8:30 To 9:25 a.m.
Business Trends for Ceramics-Related
Industries
Speaker: Thomas Abraham, innovative Research
and Products inc.
Thomas Abraham
9:30 To 10:25 a.m.
Raw-materials Trends Impacting the Ceramics and glass
Community
10:45 To 11:40 a.m.
The market outlook for energy-Related Technologies
Speaker: Kevin See, Analyst, Lux Research
36
Speaker: Louis Mattos Jr., The Coca-Cola Company
Louis Mattos Jr.
HyaTT REgEnCy BaLTiMoRE
300 Light street, Baltimore, md 21202
402-592-6464 | 888-421-1442
When making a reservation by phone, please mention
The american Ceramic society room block to secure your
reservation at the negotiated conference rate.
Room Rates
single/double/Triple/Quad– $199.00 plus tax
government– $161.00 (access code: aCsgoV0711)
Cut-off Date
July 8, 2011
make reservations online at www.ceramics.org/cls2011.
2011 GlASS & OpticAl MAteriAlS
DiviSiOn AnnUAl MeetinG
May 15 -19, 2011
Hilton Savannah DeSoto Hotel
Savannah, Ga. USA
Sign up before April 15 to save $125!
www.ceramics.org/gomd2011
Invitation to attend GOMD 2011
We invite you to join more than 300 of your colleagues in Savannah,
Ga., to discuss your research and share knowledge about the physical
properties and technological processes important to glasses, amorphous solids and all optical materials. GOMD 2011 includes sessions
headed by technical leaders from industry, government laboratories
and academia that cover the latest advances in glass science and technology as well as a focused examination of the amorphous state.
GOMD 2011 is designed for those involved or interested in the scientific research and development, application and manufacturing of all
glass types.
GOMD 2011 program chairs
Joseph V. Ryan
[email protected]
Pacific Northwest
National Lab
Amanda Brennecka
[email protected]
Sandia National Labs
International Journal of Applied
Glass Science
Edited by David Pye, co-edited by Mario
Affatigato
and Technology Short Course
Register for this two-day short course, taught by Arun K. Varshneya,
Saxon Glass. Professional engineers, scientists, administrators and students who wish to rapidly acquire a general idea of glass or append
their education in materials engineering should attend. Course topics
include commercial glass families, glassy state, nucleation and crystallization, phase separation, glass structure, glass technology, batch calculations, glass melting and forming, glass properties and engineering
principles, and elementary fracture analysis.
Copies of the newest IJAGS will be available at
GOMD 2011.
Launched March 2010, the International
Journal of Applied Glass Science endeavors to
be an indispensable source of information
dealing with the application of glass science
and engineering across the entire materials
spectrum.
Order your print subscription today! Visit www.ceramics.org/ijags
Hilton Savannah DeSoto Hotel
Reserve your room by April 15, 2011, to secure the conference rates. Please call 912-231-1633 or 800-455-8667.
Room Rates
$139.00 plus tax – single/double/triple/quad
$ 99.00 plus tax – student
$106.00 plus tax – government
37
2011 GOMD Annual Meeting
Sign up by April 15 at www.ceramics.org/gomd2011
GOMD schedule-at-a-glance
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Registration
Welcome Reception
3:00 – 7:00 p.m.
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Registration
Stookey Lecture of Discovery
Concurrent Technical Sessions
Lunch on Own
Poster Session
7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
9:20 a.m. – Noon
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Registration
George W. Morey Award
Norbert J. Kreidl Award for
Young Scholars*
Lunch on Own
Conference Dinner
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Registration
Lunch on Own
7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
8:00 a.m. – Noon
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
GMIC Symposium**
Registration
Short Course**
7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
7:30 a.m. – Noon
8:00 a.m. – Noon
1:30 – 5:30 p.m.
7:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
9:20 a.m. – Noon
8:00 am – 5:00 p.m.
Symposium I: Glass Science
Lead Contact: John Mauro
Jincheng Du
May 18, 2011
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
Session B: Glass Structure and Properties
Session 1
Session 2
38
Randall E. Youngman
May 17, 2011
May 17, 2011
Stéphane Gin
Pierre Frugier
May 17, 2011
May 17, 2011
9:20 a.m. – Noon
1:00 – 5:20 p.m.
Session D: Ancient Glasses
Organizer:
Session 1
Denis Strachan
May 18, 2011
10:20 a.m. – Noon
Session E: Non-silicate Glasses
Organizers:
Session 1
Session 2
Andriy Kovalskyy
Juejun (J.J.) Hu
May 16, 2011
May 16, 2011
9:20 a.m. – Noon
1:00 – 3:20 p.m.
Session F: Glass–Ceramics
Organizer:
Session 1
Amanda Brennecka
May 16, 2011
3:20 – 5:20 p.m.
Session G: Surface and Interfacial Phenomena
Session 1
Carlo G. Pantano
May 18, 2011
8:00 – 10:20 a.m.
Symposium II: The Amorphous State
Lead Contact: Joseph V. Ryan
Session A: The Glass Transition and Relaxation in
Glasses and Glass-Forming Liquids
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Prabhat K. Gupta
May 16, 2011
May 16, 2011
May 17, 2011
9:20 a.m. – Noon
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
9:20 a.m. – Noon
Session B: Model/Experiment: Links and Limits
Organizer:
Session 1
Session A: Atomistic Modeling of Glass
Structures and Interfaces
Organizer:
Session 1
Session 2
Organizer:
*Free boxed lunches will be available to attendees on a first come, first served basis.
**Separate registration is required for these events.
Session 1
Organizers:
Organizer:
Friday, May 21, 2011
Short Course**
Organizer:
Session C: Glass Corrosion
David Drabold
May 17, 2011
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
Session C: Topology and Rigidity
Organizers:
Session 1
Pierre Lucas
John Mauro
May 18, 2011
8:00 a.m. – Noon
Session D: Medium-Range Order
Organizer:
Session 1
Paul Voyles
May 18, 2011
1:00 – 5:40 p.m.
9:20 a.m. – Noon
1:20 – 5:20 p.m.
May 15–19, 2011 | Hilton Savannah DeSoto Hotel | Savannah, Ga. USA
Session E: Amorphous Metals
Organizer:
Session 1
Session 2
Session H: Ion Conductors and Energy Storage
Materials
Joseph V. Ryan
May 18, 2011
May 19, 2011
3:20 – 5:40 p.m.
8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Session F: Spin Glasses
Organizers:
Session 1
John McCloy
Kostya Trachenko
May 19, 2011
8:00 a.m. – Noon
Session G: Water Dynamics – Role in Glass
Structure and Properties
Organizer:
Session 1
Minoru Tomozawa
May 16, 2011
3:20 – 5:40 p.m.
Organizer:
Steve W. Martin
Session 1
Session 2
May 16, 2011
May 16, 2011
Symposium IV: Glass Technology
Lead Contact: Jim Marra
Session A: Glasses for Energy and Environmental
Applications
Organizer:
Amanda Billings
Session 1
Symposium III: Optical Materials
and Devices
Session 1
Mark Davis
May 17, 2011
Session B: Glass Strength
Organizers: Elam Leed
1:00 – 4:20 p.m.
Session B: Photosensitivity and Photomodification
Session 1
Pierre Lucas
Kathleen Richardson
May 16, 2011
Richard K. Brow
May 18, 2011
Organizer:
8:00 – 10:20 a.m.
Brad Tischendorf
Session 1
Organizers:
8:00 – 11:20 a.m.
Session C: Glasses for Medicine and
Biotechnology
Session A: Optical Absorption
Organizer:
May 19, 2011
Session 1
Lead Contact: Adam J. Stevenson
9:20 a.m. – Noon
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
3:20 – 5:40 p.m.
May 19, 2011
10:20 a.m. – Noon
Session D: Glass Melting and Processing
Organizer:
Rajiv Tiwary
Session 1
May 18, 2011
1:00 – 3:20 p.m.
Session C: Optical Ceramics
Organizers:
Session 1
Session 2
Adam J. Stevenson
Robert J. Pavlacka
May 16, 2011
May 16, 2011
9:20 a.m. – Noon
1:00 – 3:20 p.m.
Session 1
David Scrymgeour
May 17, 2011
9:20 a.m. – Noon
Session E: Optical Coatings
Organizer:
Session 1
Session 1
May 18, 2011
1:00 – 5:20 p.m.
Mary Bliss
May 18, 2011
Session 1
Dana C. Olson
May 18, 2011
May 18, 2011
3:20 – 5:40 p.m.
Robert A. Schaut
Poster abstracts will be accepted for all sessions and symposia. Students are encouraged to enter their presentations in the annual poster
competition for professional recognition and cash awards!
Session 1
May 16, 2011
6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
10:20 a.m. – Noon
Session G: Solar Energy and Photocatalysis
Organizers: Matthew T. Lloyd
Gang Chen
Poster Session & Student Poster
Competition
Organizer:
S. K. Sundaram
Session F: Sensors and Scintillators
Organizer:
Organizer:
Session 1
Session D: Active Optics
Organizer:
Session E: Liquid Synthesis and Sol–Gel-Derived
Materials
8:00 – 11:40 a.m.
Become a Corporate Sponsor
Platinum ($5,000)
Gold ($3,500)
Silver ($2,000)
To participate, contact Pat Janeway at 614-794-5826 or
[email protected]
39
Register now!
Structural clay ProductS diviSion Meeting
Gettysburg, Pa. USA • Gettysburg Hotel • May 2-4, 2011
The Three-day evenT will offer Two planT Tours and presenTaTions from inviTed speakers.
sign up online aT www.ceramics.org/clay11.
Schedule
eventS
of
Monday, May 2
3:00 to 7:00 p.m.
5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Registration
Welcome reception
Tuesday, May 3
7:00 to 8:00 a.m.
8:00 a.m. to Noon
Noon to 1:30 p.m.
1:30 to 4:00 p.m.
1:30 to 4:00 p.m.
4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Registration
Plant visit to Rocky Ridge molded brick plant
(Rocky Ridge, Md.)
Return to Gettysburg Hotel; Attendees on own
for lunch
Registration
Technical session
Supplier’s mixer
Wednesday, May 4
8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Plant visit to Watsontown Brick Company
(Watsontown, Pa.)
Plant tourS
Featured activities at this meeting are plant tours. The organizing committee
has selected two very interesting brick manufacturing plants to tour. Join us on
these excursions to explore these manufacturing facilities:
Redland Brick’s Rocky Ridge molded brick plant has a rich history that dates
back to the 19th century. Rocky Ridge’s roots go back to the 1800s when
Baltimore-area brick plants were supplying all of the major East Coast cities.
Today, the plant’s brick are used by designers, architects and homeowners
to capture the warm, traditional appearance that only wood mold products
can provide. Rocky Ridge’s brick combine the best of old-world beauty with
today’s innovative computer technology. Although fired in a modern computercontrolled kiln, the brick are formed by methods that are simliar to centuries old
brickmaking. Brick are formed, as they were by artisans of colonial times, by
placing soft mud into sanded wood molds. The sand provides the final brick
color and is used to release the clay from the mold. The end result is a distinctive brick that provides a unique warmth and depth to any building exterior.
Watsontown Brick Company, a family-owned brick manufacturer located near
the Susquehanna River in North Central Pennsylvania, is an innovator and
industry leader producing quality brick and pavers for more than a century.
Founded in 1908 to provide street pavers for surrounding towns, Watsontown
Brick today is a premier manufacturer and marketer offering a vast variety of
extruded and molded brick to builders, architects and contractors throughout
the Northeast. Watsontown Brick Company’s quality products, including architectural, facing, refractory and “green” brick as well as masonry units and pavers, begin with abundant access to superior raw materials: native red shale and
plastic yellow shale from an on-site quarry; water that is drawn from deep wells,
40
filtered and quality tested; and the finest sands available from throughout the
country. In the past decade Watsontown Brick has opened two new plants to
meet the changing needs of architects and builders. The fully automated extrusion plant with its high-temperature kiln – inaugurated in 2001 – was designed
to provide increased production and the ability to manufacture a much wider
range of products, including a multitude of types, sizes, shapes and colors
that meet stringent FBX specifications. In 2008, the opening of the molded
brick plant further extended Watsontown Brick’s line of architectural bricks.
The molded brick, also available in a full range of colors, sizes and shapes,
are designed to meet the highest aesthetic standards whether for traditional,
contemporary or renovation projects.
hotel InformatIon
Gettysburg Hotel
One Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, PA 17325
Phone: 717-337-2000 | Fax: 717-337-2075
When making a reservation, mention The American Ceramic Society room
block to receive the conference rate.
Rates
$107 Single/Double
$127 Suite
GettySburG area attractIonS
For a complete list of attractions, visit www.ceramics.org/clay11.
Historic Gettysburg Walking Tour
The Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau and Main Street Gettysburg
offer a self-guided walking tour of Historic Downtown Gettysburg. Walk the
streets where soldiers fought, civilians lived and President Abraham Lincoln
paraded to the National Cemetery for the 1863 dedication services. Learn more
about life in Gettysburg before, during and days after the fateful days of the
Civil War. Enjoy the historic buildings, many dating back to pre-Civil War times.
These attractions are within close proximity to the Gettysburg Hotel:
•DavidWillsHouse–footstepsfromthehotel;
•StevenB.Wiley&TheLincolnLeadershipInstitute–footstepsfrom
the hotel;
•Battlefield–0.25milesfromthehotel;
•GettysburgNationalMilitaryParkMuseum&VisitorCenter–1.5miles
from the hotel;
•PresidentEisenhowerHomeandFarm–1.5milesfromhotel;
•GhostsofGettysburg–0.2milesfromthehotel.
resources
International Journal of Applied Glass Science preview
All ACerS members are provided free online access
to the International Journal of Applied Glass Science.
Go to www.ceramics.org, enter your username
and password and then go to the “Publications and
Resources” menu. Print subscriptions (not free to
members) are also sold online by Wiley-Blackwell
Publishing, www.wiley.com.
New papers are posted to the “Online Early” page as
soon as they are ready for publication, even before the
issue is printed. Below are samples of what’s coming.
Coatings on Glass-Ceramic Granules for Dental
Restorative Biomaterials
Kathrin Michel, Carlo G. Pantano, Christian Ritzberger,
Volker Rheinberger and Wolfram Höland
This international research team used self-assembly in
aqueous solution and fluidized-bed techniques to produce
nanocoatings on leucite–fluoroapatite glass–ceramic granules. They used the glass–ceramics to prepare powder compacts for veneer materials for metal frameworks, including
multiunit dental bridges.
An Overview of the Structure and Properties of
Silicon-Based Oxynitride Glasses
Paul F. Becher, Stuart Hampshire, Michael J. Pomeroy,
Michael J. Hoffmann, Michael J. Lance and Raphaelle L. Satet
These authors review the current understanding of the
properties, structural parameters and interrelationships
of silicon-based oxynitride glasses. The review includes
silicon-yttrium-aluminum-based oxynitride glasses and
silicon-rare earth (most of the lanthanide series elements)metal (primarily aluminum or magnesium) oxynitride
glasses. The latter glasses have elastic, thermal, mechanical and optical properties that can be correlated with the
strength of the rare-earth bond.
High-Power Solid-State Lasers: A Laser Glass
Perspective
John H. Campbell, Joseph S. Hayden and Alex Marker
These authors from Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory and Schott North America review the composition and properties required of high-energy/high-power,
petawatt and high-average-power laser systems that are
used for fusion energy ignition demonstration, fundamental physics research and materials processing, respectively.
They note that advances in these laser systems will require
new glasses and new melting methods.
Edge Strength Testing of Thin Glasses
Suresh T. Gulati and John D. Helfinstine
Gulati and Helfinstine of Corning Incorporated review
various tests for measuring edge strength and present the
theory and application of four-point vertical bend tests.
They provide guidelines for designing the width and thickness of the test specimen relative to its length that obviates the onset of lateral buckling. They also provide three
simple inspections to verify the validity of the test.
Role of Sulfur and Its Diffusion in Silicate Glass
Melts
Günther H. Frischat, Monika Szurman and Thomas Pfeiffer
This research team from Germany used a radioactive
tracer method to determine sulfur diffusion in a technical
alkali-poor barium alumoborosilicate glass melt and on
three Na2O-modified glass melts. The team reports that
diffusion increased almost exponentially with increased
Na2O content and is related to the Eyring diffusivity
derived from viscosity.
Preventing Sodium Poisoning of Photocatalytic
TiO2 Films on Glass by Metal Doping
Murat Erdem Kurtoglu, Travis Longenbach and Yury Gogotsi
These researchers examined the effects of silver, cobalt,
copper, gallium, molybdenum and tantalum doping on the
prevention of poisoning of sol–gel TiO2 films from sodiumbased substrates. They report that molybdenum was superior to other dopants in terms of photocatalytic activity, in
the presence of sodium and in a sodium-free environments.
Thermal Stability and Crystallization Kinetics of
MgO–Al2O3–B2O3–SiO2 Glasses
Manuela Reben and Hong Li
Reben and Li studied the effects of iron on the thermal properties and crystallization kinetics of relevant
glasses used to prepare MgO–Al2O3–B2O–SiO2-based lowdielectric glass fibers under various heat-treatment conditions. They believe that the iron in the glass functions
as a nucleation agent that enhances crystal population
density in the melt without altering a primary phase field.
They also conclude that neither crystallization nor amorphous phase separation can be expected for drawing fibers
between 1200°C and 1300°C in a commercial operation.
41
resources
Journal of the American Ceramic Society preview
to the Journal of the American Ceramics Society
(searchable to 1918). Go to www.ceramics.org, enter
your username and password and then go to the
“Publications and Resources” menu. Print subscriptions to this journal (not free to members) are also
sold online by Wiley–Blackwell Publishing, www.wiley.
com.
Precursor Homogeneity and Crystallization
Effects in Chemical Solution Deposition-Derived
Alkaline Niobate Thin Films
Mark Röscher, Stefan Tappertzhofen and Theodor Schneller
A German research team prepared chemical solution
deposition-derived potassium niobate and sodium niobate
thin films using an alkoxide approach under a protective
atmosphere. This team reports that the quality and homogeneity of the resulting thin films significantly depends on the
preparation of the alkaline precursor and that a more sensitive potassium niobate system is obtained if the precursor
solution is stabilized by acetylacetone.
Formation of Hydroxyapatite Whiskers by
Hydrothermal Homogeneous Precipitation Using
Acetamide
Hongquan Zhang and Brian W. Darvell
Zhang and Darvell used hydrothermal homogeneous precipitation from aqueous solution and acetamide to prepare
well-crystallized, compositionally homogeneous hydroxyapatite whiskers with uniform morphology and high aspect
ratio. They report that the slow hydrolysis of acetamide
provides a stable and continuous growth environment with
a low degree of supersaturation, which facilitates rapid
growth of long hydroxyapatite whiskers directly from the
hydrothermal solution.
On the Conversion of Bulk Polycrystalline Y2O3
into the Nanocrystalline State
Bernard H. Kear, Jafar F. Al-Sharab, Rajendra K. Sadangi,
Stuart Deutsch, N. Beril Kavukcuoglu, Stephen D. Tse,
Adrian Mann, Oleg A. Voronov and Christopher S. Nordahl
These researchers from Rutgers and Raytheon used a
reversible phase transformation process to convert fully dense
polycrystalline Y2O3 directly to the nanocrystalline state.
42
They report that the process involves a forward transformation from cubic to monoclinic symmetry under a high pressure, and a reverse transformation from monoclinic to cubic
symmetry under a lower pressure.
Crack-Tip Toughness from Vickers Crack-Tip
Opening Displacements for Materials with
Strongly Rising R-Curves
Stefan Fünfschilling, Theo Fett, Rainer Oberacker, Michael J.
Hoffmann, Gerold A. Schneider, Paul F. Becher and
Jamie J. Kruzic
This team of American and German researchers proposes rigorous and approximate methods to determine intrinsic
crack-tip toughness from crack-tip opening displacement
measurements on Vickers indent cracks for materials with
steeply rising R-curves. They suggest that such methods are
attractive because of the relative ease of producing indentation cracks and analyzing the crack-tip opening displacements. They also suggest that their approximation method
saves considerable computational effort.
Atomic Layer Deposition of Alumina onto
Carbon Fibers
Amit K. Roy, Wolfgang Baumann, Steffen Schulze, Michael
Hietschold, Thomas Mäder, Daisy J. Nestler, Bernhard
Wielage and Werner A. Goedel
This German research team used atomic layer deposition to successfully coat bundles of carbon fibers with
alumina via sequential exposures to trimethylaluminum
and water. The team reports that the fibers were not damaged, individual filaments were coated separately with a
smooth layer, no fiber bridging was observed, the coating
was conformal and adhered well to the fiber surface, and
the alumina coating significantly improved the oxidation
resistance of the carbon fiber.
The Reduction and Luminescence Characteristics of Sm2+ Doped in Ba3BP3O12 Crystal
Jiayu Wang, Yanlin Huang, Yadong Li and Hyo Jin Seo
This team of researchers from China and Korea used an
X-ray irradiation reduction method under a reducing atmosphere to obtain Sm2+ ions doped in Ba3BP3O12 polycrystalline samples. They used X-ray powder diffractometry to
investigate them. The team reports that the luminescence
properties and stabilities of the Sm2+ ions are highly dependent on the sample preparation conditions.
resources
Int’l Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology preview
to the International Journal of Applied Ceramic
Technology. Go to www.ceramics.org, enter
your username and pasword and then go to the
“Publications & Resources” menu. Print subscriptions
to this journal (not free to members) are sold online by
Wiley–Blackwell Publishing, www.wiley.com.
Effects of Thermal Cycling on the Formation of
Oxide Scale of Fe–Cr Alloy Interconnects for
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
These researchers from AIST in Japan report that the
oxide scales formed in iron-chromium alloy interconnects
used in solid oxide fuel cells consist of spinel-based oxides
formed by fast diffusion of manganese along the grain boundaries of the alloy. They also report that, although the oxide
scale/alloy interface showed strong contact without exfoliation, some cracks were found at the oxide scale surface.
Preparation and Characterization of PLLA/
CaSiO3/Apatite Composite Films
Huixian Yu, Congqin Ning, Kaili Lin and Lei Chen
This team of Chinese researchers used a solvent evaporation technique and CaSiO3/apatite composite, prepared
by a biomimetic method, to fabricate poly-L-lactic acid/
CaSiO3/apatite composite films. The team reports that the
powder/solution ratio used during the immersion controlled
the composition and particle size of the CaSiO3/apatite and
that the β-CaSiO3 content controlled the ability of the
films to form apatite in vitro.
Electrical Properties of Epitaxial
0.65Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3∙0.35PbTiO3 Thin Films
Grown on Buffered Si Substrates by Pulsed
Laser Deposition
Juan Jiang, Sung-Gi Hur and Soon-Gil Yoon
This team of researchers from Korea used conventional
pulsed laser deposition under an oxygen atmosphere to
grow 0.65Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3∙0.35PbTiO3 thin films on
La0.5Sr0.5CoO3−δ/CeO2/YSZ/silicon substrates. The team
reports that the thin films exhibit epitaxial perovskite structure, high dielectric constant, low dissipation factor and
good polarization–electric field hysteresis characteristic.
Silica Effect on Porous Calcium Phosphate
Ceramics from the Freeze Gelation Route
Maxim Pulkin, Dietmar Koch and Georg Grathwohl
This team of German researchers used the environmentfriendly, low-cost, freeze gelation technique to prepare
near-net-shape silicon-modified calcium phosphate ceramics from silica-containing hydroxyapatite suspensions. The
team reports that the addition of silica affects the sintering
behavior and the phase composition of the samples and
that it allows in-situ control over the hydroxyapatite/silicon–hydroxyapatite to tricalcium phosphate/silicon–tricalcium phosphate ratio.
Teruhisa Horita, Masashi Yoshinaga, Haruo Kishimoto,
Katsuhiko Yamaji, Manuel E. Brito, YuePing Xiong and
Harumi Yokokawa
In-Situ Preparation and Enhanced Mechanical
Properties of Carbon Nanotube/Hydroxyapatite
Composites
Ting Lei, Li Wang, Chun Ouyang, Nian-Feng Li and
Le-Shan Zhou
This team of medical and ceramics researchers from
China modified multiwalled carbon nanotube/hydroxyapatite composites, prepared by in-situ chemical precipitation,
with poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) wrapping or dodecyl benzene
sulfonate adsorption. They report that the fracture toughness and the flexural strength for the fully dense compact are
increased by an optimum addition of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone).
Fabrication and Characterization of
Hydroxyapatite–Forsterite–Bioactive Glass
Composite Nanopowder for Biomedical
Applications
Maryam Mazrooei Sebdani and Mohammad Hossein Fathi
This research team from Iran used a sol–gel method to
fabricate a novel hydroxyapatite–forsterite–bioglass composite nanopowder on which an apatite layer was formed
when it was immersed in simulated body fluid. The team
suggests that this composite nanopowder is a good candidate for biomedical applications.
Grain Growth Kinetics of Glass–Ceramic
Produced from Power Plant Fly Ash
A. Sukran Demirkiran, Senol Yilmaz and Ugur Sen
These researchers from Turkey used a heat-treatment
process to produce glass–ceramics from power plant fly ash.
They report grain growth behavior of the diopsite- and
augite-containing glass–ceramic phases produced.
43
resources
Calendar of events
April 2011
5–6 Micro Manufacturing & Nano
Manufacturing Conference & Exhibits
– Drury Lane Conference Center,
Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.; www.sme.org/
micro
5–7 CICMT 2011: IMAPS/ACerS 7th Int’l
Conference and Exhibition on Ceramic
Interconnect and Ceramic Microsystems
Technologies – Westgate Hotel, San
Diego, Calif.; www.imaps.org/ceramics
5–6 Composites Manufacturing 2011 –
Dayton Convention Center, Dayton Ohio;
www.sme.org/composites
21 ACerS Michigan/Northwest Ohio
Section’s 2011 Toledo Glass and Ceramic
Award Meeting – The Toledo Club,
Toledo, Ohio; www.ceramics.org/sections/
michigan-and-northwest-ohio-section/ or
Jan Bailey, [email protected]
26–29 9th European Conference on
Industrial Furnaces and Boilers – Hotel
Palácio, Estoril, Portugal; www.
cenertec.pt/infub
17–19 Plant Maintenance & Design
Engineering Show 2011 – Place
Bonaventure, Montreal, Canada; www.
pmds.ca
24–26 RAPID 2011 & 3D Imaging
Conference & Exposition – Hyatt
Regency, Minneapolis, Minn.; www.sme.
org/rapid
26–29 Ceramics China 2011 – Import
and Export Fair Complex, Guangzhou,
China; www.ceramicschina.com.cn
Annual Conference – Hyatt Regency,
Bellevue, Wash.; www.sme.org/conference
5–8
Fractography of Glasses and
Ceramics VI – Jacksonville, Fla.;
www.fractographyvi.com/index.html
8–10 ACerS Southwest Section
Annual Meeting – Omni Mandalay Hotel,
Las Colinas (Dallas-Irving), Texas; www.
ceramics.org/sections/southwest-section
19–23
2–5
26–July 1 7th Int’l Dendrimer
Int’l Symposium on Olfaction
and Electronic Nose 2011 – Rockefeller
University, New York City, N.Y.; www.
engconf.org/11as.html
3–4 Structural Clay Products Division
Meeting – Gettysburg, Pa.; www.
ceramics.org/clay11
8–12 Engineering Ceramics 2011
– Smolenice Castle, Slovakia; www.
engcer11.sav.sk
12–15 Advances in Applied Physics
and Materials Science 2011 Congress –
Mirada Del Mar Hotel, Antalya, Turkey;
www.apmas2011.org
12th Conference of the
European Ceramic Society – City
Conference Center, Stockholm, Sweden;
www.ecers2011.se
Symposium 2011 – Gaithersburg, Md.;
www.mrs.org/meetings
27–July 1 Semiconductor
Technology for Ultra Large Scale
Integrated Circuits and Thin Film
Transistors – Hong Kong, China; www.
engconf.org/11ax.html
July 2011
10–14 PACRIM9: The 9th Int’l
Meeting of Pacific Rim Ceramic Societies
– Cairns, Australia; www.
austceram.com/pacrim9.asp
10–14
Materials Division Spring Meeting –
Hilton Savannah DeSoto Hotel, Savanna,
Ga.; www.ceramics.org/gomd2011
9th Int’l Conference on
Advances in the Fusion and Processing
of Glass (held in conjuction with
PACRIM9) – Cairns, Australia; www.
austceram.com/pacrim9.asp
16–20 Mineral Processing: An
21–24 27th Convention of Mexican
15–19 GOMD 2011: Glass & Optical
Introduction to the Principles – Colorado
School of Mines, Golden, Colo.; www.
csmspace.com/events/minproc
44
28–29 NSF Ceramic Materials PI
Workshop 2011 – Arlington, Va.; www.
ceramics.org/nsfworkshop
August 2011
1–3 Ceramic Leadership Summit 2011
– Hyatt Regency, Baltimore, Md.; www.
ceramics.org/cls2011
June 2011
Int’l Workshop on
5–7 Society of Manufacturing Engineers 7–11
Piezoelectric Materials and
May 2011
2–4 INTERTECH 2011 – Hyatt
Regency O’Hare, Chicago, Ill.; www.
intertechconference.com
24–26 Cements Division/Center for
Advanced Cement-Based Materials
Annual Meeting – Vanderbilt University,
Nashville, Tenn., www.ceramics.org/
divisions/cements-division
Ceramics Industry – Cancun Palace
Hotel, Cancun, Mexico; www.soceramnorte.com.mx/
Applications 2011 for Clean Energy
Systems – Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke,
Va.; www.cpe.vt.edu/ehw
21–25 7th Int’l Conference on
Borate Glasses, Crystals and Melts
– Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada; www.regonline.com/
borate7
28–Sept. 1
Korean Ceramic
Society and Korean Powder Metal
Institute Sintering 2011 – Jeju Island,
Korea; www.sintering2011.org
September 2011
12–14 imX Interactive Manufacturing
Experience – Las Vegas Convention
Center, Las Vegas, Nev.; www.
imxevent.com
20–22 Hi Temp Conference (Netzsch
North America Instruments) –
Millennium Hotel, Boston, Mass.; www.
hitemp2011.com
October 2011
2–7 EPD 2011: 4th Int’l Conference
on Electrophoretic Deposition –
CasaMagna Marriott Hotel, Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico; www.engconfintl.
org/11ab.html
Dates in RED denote new entry in
this issue.
Entries in BLUE denote ACerS
events.
denotes meetings that ACerS
cosponsors, endorses or otherwise cooperates in organizing.
Phone (614) 794-5866 • Fax (614) 891-8960
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Senior Editor
Are you an experienced science writer or reporter
(with a credentialed background in one of the
physical sciences or engineering) with a strong
understanding of digital and prepress publishing
processes? The American Ceramic Society is
hiring a Senior Editor to report, write and develop
print, video and online content, and assume
some production management responsibilities.
This full-time position is located in the ACerS
headquarters office in Columbus (Westerville),
OH and offers competitive compensation plus a
strong growth potential for the right candidate.
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application process can be found on the ACerS
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Are you an experienced science writer or
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one of the physical sciences or engineering)
with a strong understanding of digital and
prepress publishing processes? The American
Ceramic Society is
hiring a SeniorScience
Editor to & Engineering
Materials
American Ceramic Society
report, write and develop print, video and
The Department
Materials
and Engineering at North Carolina State
online
content, and of
assume
some Science
production
Approved By: ________________________________________
University isresponsibilities.
accepting applications
for a Postdoctoral Research Scholar. The
management
This full-time
Signature Required
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The selected candidate will be a
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Approved
as is, noof
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at:
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POSTDOCTORAL
RESEARCH SCHOLAR
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Review of applications will begin immediately.
North Carolina State University is an Equal Opportunity,
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In addition, NC State welcomes all persons without regard to
sexual orientation.
Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations in the application and
interview process, please call (919) 515-3148.
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Visit: westpenntesting.com
NETZSCH Instruments
724-334-4140
nCONSULTING
Call or write for further information
P.O. BOX 8428
TOLEDO, OHIO 43623
Ph: 419/537-8813
Fax: 419/537-7054
e-mail: [email protected]
web site: www.sem-com.com
Mohr trades ceramic machinery worldwide.
When your surplus machinery is on one
continent and the market is half-a-world
away, it is Mohr Corporation that will
put the deal together.
North America, LLC
37 North Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803
“Solutions For Advanced
Ph: 781-272-5353
www.netzsch.com
Process Technologies”
laboratory/testing services
CERAMIC MACHINERY
and FACTORIES FOR SALE
WORLDWIDE
Your only global source
LABORATORY TESTING
• Thermal Process Development
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• Powder Material Reduction
• Oxidization and Calcination
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• Gas-Solid or Solid-Solid Reaction Thermodynamic and
Kinetic Study
Corporate Offices:
P.O. Box 1600
Brighton, MI 48116 USA
Tel: +1 (810) 225-9494
Fax: +1 (810) 223-6647
Website: http://www.mohrcorp.com
Mohr offices and associates are strategically located worldwide
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HARPER INTERNATIONAL
2farbig
maintenance/repair services
Ceramic Bulletin
101 W. Drullard Ave.
Lancaster, NY 14086-1698
www.harperintl.com
[email protected]
716-684-7400 • fax 716-684-7405
Advanced ceramic testing
Superior quality and performance in:
nThermal Analysis
nCalorimetry
nDetermination of thermophysical
properties
nContract Testing Services
NETZSCH Instruments
North America, LLC
37 North Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803
Ph: 781-272-5353
www.netzsch.com
GELLER MICROANALYTICAL
LABORATORY, INC.
Analytical Services & NIST Traceable
Magnification Standards
neue Anschrift:
SEM/X-ray, Electron Mircoprobe, Surface Analysis
(Auger), Metallography, Particle Size Counting,
and Optical Microscopy
for Ceramics and Composite Materials
NETZSCH
Instruments
Specializing in quantitative analysis of boron, carAmerica, LLC
bon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc. in micrometer sized North
areas.
Elemental mapping,diffusion studies, failure analysis,
129
Middlesex
Turnpike
reverse engineering and phase area determinations.
I S O 90 0 1 & 1 7 0 2 5 C e r t if ie dBurlington,
MA 01803
Email:
[email protected]
426 Boston St. Topsfield, MA 01983
Tel: 978-887-7000 Fax: 978-887-6671
Ph: 781-272-5353
www.gellermicro.com Email: [email protected]
www.netzsch.com
Put our years of experience to work on your specimens!
Thermal Analysis Materials Testing
n
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Dilatometry
Firing Facilities
Custom Testing
Glass Testing
DTA/TGA
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Thermal Gradient
ASTM Testing
Refractories Creep
Clay testing
3470 E. Fifth Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43219-1797
(614) 231-3621 Fax: (614) 235-3699
www.ceramictechtoday.org
47
SAVE THE DATE!
MAY 3-4, 2011
bulletin
Advertiser
L
A
R
U
T
TRUC
S
CLAY
TS
C
U
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PRO
N
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GETTYSBURG, PA
THE 2-DAY ANNUAL MEETING
INCLUDES TWO PLANT TOURS
AND PRESENTATIONS FROM
ATTENDEES.
JOIN
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THE MAILING LIST TO
APRIL 2011
Page No.
AdveRtIseR Index
Advertiser
Page No.
ACCCO Inc./Burley Clay Products
[email protected]
www.acco-inc.com
46
Quality Executive Search Inc.
440-899-5070
www.qualityexec.com
45
AdValue Technology
502-514-1100
[email protected]
www.advaluetech.com
45
Richard E. Mistler Inc.
800-641-1034
[email protected]
www.drblade.com
45
Sem-Com Co.
419-537-8813
[email protected]
www.sem-com.com
47
Specialty Glass Inc.
813-855-5779
[email protected]
www.sgiglass.com
46
Technical Products Inc.
262-335-3635
tpi@technical productsinc.com
www.technicalproductsinc.com
46
VIOX Corp.
206-763-2170
[email protected]
www.viox.com
46
West Penn Testing Group
724-334-4140
www.westpenntesting.com
47
Zircar Zirconia Inc.
845-651-3040
[email protected]
www.zircarzirconia.com
46
MAY 3-4, 2011
American Ceramic Society, The
Inside back
www.ceramics.org
cover, 19, 23, 45
American Elements
www.americanelements.com
Back cover
Centorr/Vacuum Industries Inc.
800-962-8631
[email protected]
www.centorr.com/cb
47
Delkic & Associates
904-285-0200
45
Evans Analytical Group
315-431-9900
www.eaglabs.com
47
Geller Microanalytical Laboratory
978-887-7000
www.gellermicro.com
47
Harper International Corp.
716-684-7400
www.harperintl.com
47
Harrop Industries Inc.
614-231-3621
www.harropusa.com
MS&T’11
www.matscitech.org
3, 46, 47
Inside front cover
Mohr Corp.
810-225-9494
[email protected]
www.mohrcorp.com
47
NC State University
https://jobs.nsu.edu
45
Advertising Sales
Pat Janeway, Associate Publisher
[email protected]
ph:614-794-5826•fx:614-794-5822
STAY CONNECTED.
Netzsch Instruments NA LLC
781-272-5353
[email protected]
www.netzsch.com
5, 47
ceramics.org/clay11
Powder Processing & Technology
219-462-4141 x224
www.pptechnology.com
46
PremaTech Advanced Ceramic
508-791-9549
[email protected]
www.prematechac.com
46
Europe
Richard Rozelaar
[email protected]
ph: 44-(0)-20-7834-7676
fx:44-(0)-20-7973-0076
Classified Advertising/Services
Pat Janeway
[email protected]
ph:614-794-5826•fx:614-794-5822
600 N. Cleveland Ave, Suite 210
Westerville, OH 43082
Organized by:
Co-sponsor:
®
Materials Science & Technology
2011 Conference & Exhibition
Oct. 16–20, 2011
Columbus Convention Center
Columbus, Ohio
Exhibition Dates: Oct. 18–19, 2011
Reser
ve
your b
ooth
by Ap
ril 29 th
to sav
e!
Contact Pat Janeway at [email protected] to sign up.
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april 2011 - The American Ceramic Society

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